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pM 


Nervous  and  Mental  Disease  Monograph 
Series,  No.  15 


DREAMS  AND  MYTHS 

A  Study  in  Race  Psychology 


BY 

DR.  KARL  ABRAHAM 

Berlin 


Translated  by 
WILLIAM  A.  WHITE,  M.D, 

Washington 


NEW  YORK 

THE  JOURNAL  OF  NERVOUS  AND  MENTAL  DISEASE 
PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


Reprinted  with  the  permission  of  the  Original  Publisher 

JOHNSON   REPRINT   CORPORATION     JOHNSON  REPRINT  COMPANY  LTD. 

'1 1 1  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  N.Y.  lOOOS     Berkeley  Square  House,  London.  W1X6BA 


First  reprinting  1970,  Johnson  Reprint  Corporation 
Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


Copyright,  1 913,  by 

The  Journal  of  Nervous  and  Mental   Disease 

Publishing  Company,  New  York 


AUTHOR'S  FOREWORD  TO  THE  AMERICAN 

EDITION 

Three  years  have  elapsed  since  the  appearance  of  the  German 
edition.  In  the  meantime  the  interest  in  psychoanalytic  researches 
has  everywhere  grown,  more  especially  in  the  United  States  of 
North  America.  So  the  need  for  an  English  translation  of  this 
work  has  arisen. 

The  author  can  only  say  that  the  views  that  he  has  presented 

in  this  work  have  experienced  complete  confirmation  through  the 

more  recent  investigations. 

Dr.  Karl  Abraham. 
Berlin,  September,  1912. 


ni 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/dreamsmythsstudyOOabra 


CONTENTS 

I.  Object  and  Viewpoint  of  Psychoanalytic  Investiga- 
tions According  to  Freud i 

II.  Childhood  Phantasies  in  Dreams  and  Myths.     Appli- 
cation of  the  Wish  Theory  to  Myths 4 

III.  Symbolism  in  Speech,  in  Dreams  and  Other  Phantasies     12 

IV.  Analysis  of  the  Prometheus  Saga  ^j 

V.  Infantilism  in  Individual  and  Folk  Psycholog)-,  Wish- 
fulfillment  in  Dream  and  Myth 32 

VI.  The  Effect  of  the  Censor  in  Dreams  and  Myths.     The 

Work  of  Condensation 43 

VII.  Displacement  and  Secondary  Elaboration  in  Dreams 

and  Myths    46 

VIII.  The  Effect  of  Displacement  in  the  Sagas  of  Prome- 
theus, Moses,  and  Samson 49 

IX.  The  Means  of  Representation  of  the  Myth 55 

X.  Wish-fulfillment  in  the  Prometheus  Saga 58 

XI.  Analysis  of  the  Myth  of  the  Origin  of  Nectar 63 

XII.  The  Wish  Theory  of  the  Myth 69 

XIII.  The  Determining  Forces  in  the  Psychic  Life  of  the 

Individual  and  the  Race   73 


DREAMS  AND  MYTHS/ 


Object  and  Viewpoint  of  Psychoanalytic  Investigations 
According  to  Freud 

The  psychological  theories  that  are  associated  with  the  name 
of  S.  Freud  reach  out  into  regions  of  the  psychic  life  of  man, 
which,  from  outer  appearances,  have  no  relation  to  one  another. 
Freud  in  common  with  J.  Breuer  in  their  "Studien  iiber  Hysterie" 
(1895)  started  out  from  pathological  psychic  manifestations. 
The  progressive  elaboration  of  the  psychoanalytic  method  required 
a  searching  study  of  dreams.^  It  appeared  also  that  for  a  full 
understanding  of  these  phenomena  the  comparative  consideration 
of  certain  other  phenomena  must  be  taken  up.  Freud  saw  this 
and  drew  wider  and  wider  areas  of  the  normal  and  diseased  psy- 
chic life  into  the  field  of  his  investigations.  So  there  appeared 
in  the  Sammlung  kleiner  Schriften  zur  Neurosenlehre  (1906)  an 
assortment  of  studies  of  hysteria,  compulsive  ideas,  and  other 
psychic  disturbances,  later  the  monographs  "t)ber  den  Witz" 
(1905),  the  "  Abhandlungen  zur  Sexualtheorie  "^  (1905),  and 
lately  the  psychological  analysis  of  a  poet's  works,^*  which  consti- 
tutes the  first  volume  of  this  series.  Freud  came  to  consider  these 
apparently  heterogeneous  products  of  man's  psyche  from  a  com- 
mon viewpoint.  They  all  have  in  common  the  relation  to  the 
unconscious,  to  the  psychic  life  of  childhood,  and  to  the  sexuality; 
they  have  in  common  the  tendency  to  represent  a  wish  of  the  indi- 

♦  Traum  und  Mythus.    Eine  Studie  zur  Volkerpsychologie.    Schriften 
zur  angewandten  Seelenkunde.    Leipzig  und  Wien.    Franz  Deuticke  1909. 

^"Die  Traumdeutung."    Wien  und  Leipzig,  1900  (2  Aufl.  1909). 

*An  English  translation  of  this  work  by  Dr.  A.  A.  Brill  is  No.  7  of 
this  Series. 

*"  "  Der  Wahn  und  die  Traume  in  W.  Jensens'  *  Gradiva.' "  Wien  und 
Leipzig,  1907. 

I 


2  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

vidual  as  fulfilled;  in  common  are  the  means  of  this  representa- 
tion, which  serve  this  end. 

He  who  is  not  acquainted  with  Freud's  writings  and  those  of 
his  followers,  will  be  astonished  that  one  should  earnestly  seek  to 
place  all  these  expressions  near  one  another  under  the  same  view- 
point. He  will  ask  what  sort  of  relations  wit  has  to  the  uncon- 
scious. He  will  doubt  that  a  disease  can  contain  a  wish- fulfillment 
for  the  patient  who  suffers  from  it  and  he  will  not  quite  compre- 
hend how  one  can  place  poetry  parallel  in  this  respect.  He  will 
not  understand  what  general  relations  are  supposed  to  prevail  be- 
tween the  dreams  of  adults  and  the  psyche  of  the  child.  He  will, 
and  this  perhaps  most,  be  opposed  to  the  idea  that  one  can  ascribe 
to  all  these  psychological  phenomena  relations  to  sexuality.  And 
so  the  teachings  laid  down  by  Freud  appear  to  be  full  of  contra- 
dictions and  absurdities ;  they  appear  as  isolated  statements  with- 
out critique  to  generalize.  Consequently  one  will  be  inclined  to 
reject,  a  limine,  the  methods  of  investigation,  with  the  help  of 
which,  results  like  these  are  obtained.^ 

If  I  were  to  attempt  here  an  answer  to  the  different  objections 
I  could  not  avoid  a  detailed  presentation  of  all  of  Freud's  teach- 
ings and  would  be  obliged  to  considerably  overstep  the  limits  of 
this  work.  Opportunity  will  offer,  in  the  course  of  our  inquiry, 
to  touch  upon  the  most  important  problems  to  which  Freud  has 
devoted  his  work.  In  the  meantime  suffice  a  reference:  All  of 
the  psychic  phenomena  which  we  above  place  side  by  side  are  the 
products  of  phantasy.  We  will  not  assume,  without  further 
demonstration,  that  as  such  they  present  certain  analogies  among 
themselves. 

There  are,  besides  the  products  of  individual  phantasy,  also 

those  that  cannot  be  ascribed  to  such  phantasy.     I  am  satisfied 

•This  is  about  the  standpoint  taken  by  the  medical  profession  to 
Freud's  teachings.  It  must  be  confessed  that  Freud's  teachings  must  at 
first  appear  strange  to  the  unprejudiced.  It  should  be  emphasized  that  a 
wide  cleft  separates  them  from  traditional  psychology.  That  should  be  no 
ground,  however,  for  dismissing  them  with  a  shrug  of  the  shoulders  or  a 
few  witty  catch  words,  as  happens  on  the  side  of  the  critics. 


OBJECT   AND   VIEWPOINT  3 

at  this  place  to  mention  myths  and  legends  as  structures  of  such 
a  kind.  We  do  not  know  who  created  them,  who  first  related 
them.  In  the  sagas  and  legends  folk  phantasy  finds  expression. 
Freud  has  already  made  them,  to  a  certain  degree,  the  objects  of 
his  inquiries,  and  in  numerous  respects  disclosed  psychological 
analogies  between  them  and  the  results  of  individual  phantasy. 
Recently  another  author  has  followed  in  his  tracks.  Riklin*  has 
examined  into  the  psychological  analogies  of  the  legends  of  dif- 
ferent peoples.  The  proposed  work  is  an  attempt  to  compare 
myths  with  the  phenomena  of  individual  psychology,  especially 
with  dreams.  It  will  bring  out  the  proof  that  Freud's  teachings, 
in  a  wide  sense,  can  be  transferred  to  the  psychology  of  myths, 
and  are  even  qualified  to  furnish  wholly  new  grounds  for  the 
understanding  of  the  sagas.'' 

*  The  announced  work  of  Riklin :  "  Wunscherfiillung  und  Symbolik 
im  Marchen  "  (Vol.  2  of  this  series)  appeared  after  my  work  was  finished. 
I  could,  therefore,  only  make  use  of  a  short  preliminary  communication  of 
the  author.     (Psychiatr.-netirol.  Wochenschrift,  1907,  Nr.  22-24.) 

"Likewise  after  the  conclusion  of  this  projected  work  an  article  of 
Freud  appeared  ("  Der  Dichter  und  das  Phantasieren,"  Neiie  Revue,  2. 
Marzheft,  1908),  which  expressed  in  brief,  the  fundamental  idea  of  my 
work.  ("  Es  ist  von  den  Mythen  durchaus  wahrscheinlich,  dass  sie  den 
entstellten  Uberresten  von  Wunschphantasien  ganzer  Nationen,  den 
Sakulartraiimen  der  jungen  Menscheit  entsprechen.") 


II 

Childhood  Phantasies  in  Dreams  and  Myths.    Application 
OF  THE  Wish  Theory  to  Myths 

I  will  anticipate  at  once  some  of  the  principal  evident  objec- 
tions to  this  undertaking  as  planned.  It  will  be  objected  that 
myths  spring  from  phantasies  which  operate  during  the  waking 
state,  while  dreams  owe  their  origin  to  sleep  and  to  a  condition  of 
lowered  consciousness.  Careful  consideration  shows,  however, 
that  this  in  no  way  constitutes  an  important  difference.  We 
dream  not  only  during  sleep;  there  are  also  waking  dreams.  In 
these  we  transfer  ourselves  into  an  artificial  situation  and  form 
the  world  and  our  future  according  to  our  wishes.  That  the  same 
tendency  dwells  in  night  dreams  will  very  soon  be  accepted  by 
us.  Many  people  tend,  in  a  surprising  degree,  to  day  dreaming; 
one  sees  them  thus  absorbed.  Imperceptible  gradations  lead 
over  here  to  a  pathological  activity  of  phantasy.  Children  give 
themselves  to  such  dream-like  phantasies  very  readily.  The  little 
boy,  in  his  day  dream,  is  king  of  a  great  realm  and  conquers  in 
bloody  battles;  or  he  distinguishes  himself  as  an  Indian  chief  or 
in  some  other  manner.  Pathological  grades  of  absorption  in  day 
dreams  are  not  rare  among  children.  We  already  see  from  this 
that  there  is  no  sharp  dividing  line  between  waking  phantasies 
and  dreams.  We  know  further,  however,  from  Freud's  re- 
searches, that  the  dream  thoughts  do  not  arise  during  the  dream 
but  are  representations  from  previous  waking  periods.  In  the 
dream  they  only  maintain  a  form,  which  differs  from  that  in  which 
we  commonly  care  to  express  our  thoughts. 

Another  objection,  which  likewise  only  has  an  apparent  valid- 
ity, concerns  itself  with  the  fashioning  of  the  point  of  departure 
for  our  further  consideration.     It  will  be  shown  that  the  dream 

4 


CHILDHOOD   PHANTASIES    IN    DREAMS    AND    MYTHS  5 

is  an  individual  product,  while  in  myths  there  is  stored,  in  a  way, 
the  collective  spirit  of  a  people.  One  finds  the  comparison  in- 
valid. This  error  is  easy  to  refute.  If  dreams  originate  from 
the  emotions  of  individuals  so  there  are  emotions  which  are  com- 
mon to  mankind.  These  express  themselves  in  what  Freud  calls 
"typical"  dreams.  Freud  has  succeeded  in  tracing  back  this 
group  of  dreams  to  certain  wishes  common  to  all  men,  at  the  same 
time  to  point  out  that  these  same  wishes  lie  at  the  bottom  of 
certain  myths.  Freud's  deductions  regarding  typical  dreams  may 
thus  serve  as  a  basis  for  our  researches.  Still  it  commends  itself 
to  us  for  our  purposes,  to  take  up  the  analysis  of  the  typical 
dreams  as  a  starting  point.  They  give  us  opportunity  to  investi- 
gate the  wish  theory  of  dreams.  Besides  they  ofifer,  as  will  be 
shown,  in  certain  respects,  simpler  situations  than  most  other 
dreams." 

According  to  the  theory  of  Freud  there  lies,  at  the  bottom  of 
every  dream,  a  repressed  wish  in  the  unconscious.  Every  one 
experiences  occurrences  which  he  afterwards  can  never  recall 
without  a  lively  feeling  of  pain.  He  seeks  to  force  such  reminis- 
cences out  of  his  consciousness.  He  is  not  able  fully  to  extin- 
guish them  from  memory;  he  can  only  repress  them  into  the 
unconscious.  The  repressed  memories  and  the  wishes  associated 
with  them  are  only  apparently  forgotten;  that  is  to  say  they  are 
withdrawn  from  spontaneous  recall.  So  soon,  however,  as  the 
function  of  consciousness  is  in  any  way  impaired,  when  phantasy 
takes  the  place  of  logically  ordered  thought,  as  is  the  case  in  day 
dreaming,  the  dream,  and  under  the  most  varied  pathological  sit- 
uations, then  the  repressed  psychic  material  becomes  again  free. 
In  dreams,  and  in  the  symptoms  of  certain  psychic  disturbances, 
the  repressed  wishes  come  again  to  expression.     Their  formerly 

*A  further,  apparently  very  substantial  objection  against  the  conceived 
relationship  of  dreams  and  myths  arises  from  the  gradual  rise  of  myths 
through  many  generations,  while  the  dream  appears  to  be  a  transitory, 
short-lived  structure.  This  objection  will  find  its  refutation  in  the  course 
of  our  investigations. 


6  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

hoped  for,  but  delayed  fulfilling  is  represented  now  in  phantasy. 
That  an  important  part  of  the  repressed  wishes  spring  from  the 
period  of  childhood  is  one  of  the  facts  established  by  Freud  and 
to  which  we  must  later  come  back.  For  the  present  it  is  sufficient 
to  keep  in  mind  that  according  to  Freud's  view  the  dream  repre- 
sents the  fulfillment  of  a  repressed  wish  and  that  the  deepest  roots 
of  this  wish  lie  in  the  childhood  of  the  dreamer. 

Freud  especially  emphasizes  that  the  typical  dream  is  de- 
scended from  infantile  reminiscences.  Especially  instructive,  in 
this  respect,  are  those  dreams  which  deal  with  the  death  of  near 
relatives.  These  dreams  at  first  glance  appear  absolutely  to 
contradict  his  view  that  every  dream  contains  a  wish  fulfillment. 
Probably  every  one  who  has  at  some  time  dreamt  of  the  death 
of  a  near  relative  whom  he  loved,  will  energetically  assume  the 
defensive  if  one  assumes  that  he  wished  the  death  of  his  relative 
and  that  this  secret  wish  came  to  expression  in  the  dream.  He 
will  also  emphasize  that  the  dream  was  accompanied  by  the  most 
painful  feelings  of  anxiety  and  fright  and  so  perhaps  brought  to 
expression  an  apprehension  but  certainly  not  a  wish. 

The  theory  in  no  way  refers  only  to  actual  wishes  but  lays 
stress  with  great  emphasis  upon  the  significance  of  early  infantile 
emotions.  If  one  dreams  of  the  death  of  a  dear  relative  it  is  not 
at  all  necessary,  according  to  Freud's  teachings,  to  draw  the  con- 
clusion that  the  dreamer  now  has  such  a  wish ;  he  needs  only  to 
have  had  it  at  some,  perhaps  remote  time.  To  be  sure  one  will 
not  easily  acknowledge  this  either. 

The  child,  up  to  a  certain  age  that  shows  considerable  varia- 
tions, is  free  from  altruistic  feelings.  He  lives  in  a  naive  egoism. 
It  is  throughout  erroneous  to  assume  that  the  feeling  of  the  child 
for  its  parents  and  brothers  and  sisters  is  from  the  beginning  a 
feeling  of  affection.  On  the  contrary  there  exists  instead  among 
the  children  a  certain  rivalry.  When  a  second  child  is  born  the 
first,  who  had  been  an  only  child  up  to  that  time,  clearly  shows 


CHILDHOOD    PHANTASIES   IN   DREAMS   AND    MYTHS  "J 

jealousy  on  account  of  the  attention  paid  to  it  because  of  its  help- 
lessness. It  is  quite  usual  that  a  child  will  not  give  the  bottle  of 
milk  to  the  younger,  that  its  jealousy  is  stirred  up  when  it  sees 
the  newcomer  sitting  on  its  mother's  lap,  which  was  formerly  only 
its  own  place.  It  envies  it  its  playthings,  it  emphasizes  its  own 
superiority  when  it  speaks  of  the  younger  one  to  adults.  The 
younger  child  reacts,  as  soon  as  it  is  in  a  position  to,  in  just  such 
an  egoistic  manner.  It  sees  in  the  elder  an  oppressor  and  seeks 
to  help  itself  as  well  as  its  weakness  makes  possible.  Under 
normal  conditions  these  contrasts  gradually  disappear  to  a  great 
extent.  They  are  never  wholly  rooted  out  in  spite  of  all  educa- 
tional measures 

This  hostile  attitude  of  one  child  toward  the  other  finds  its 
expression  in  the  wish  that  the  other  were  dead.  Naturally  it 
will  be  disputed  that  a  child  can  be  so  "  bad  "  as  to  wish  the  other 
dead.  "  Who  says  that  does  not  consider  that  the  idea  of  the 
child  of  '  death '  has  little  in  common  with  ours  except  the  word  " 
(Freud).  The  child  has  no  clear  idea  of  the  death  of  a  person. 
It  hears  perhaps  that  this  or  that  relative  has  died,  is  dead.  For 
the  child  that  only  means :  that  person  is  no  longer  there.  Daily 
experience  teaches  us  how  easily  the  child  gets  over  the  absence 
of  a  loved  person.  It  perhaps  stretches  the  hand  forth  in  the 
direction  in  which  the  mother  has  gone,  it  cries  a  little  while — 
then  consoles  itself  with  games  or  food  and  no  longer  recalls 
spontaneously  the  going  away.  Older  children  of  normal  psychic 
constitution  also  get  over  a  separation  easily.  In  early  years  the 
child  identifies  death  with  absence.  It  cannot  represent  to  itself 
that  anyone,  of  whose  death  it  has  been  told,  will  never  again 
return.  We  understand  now  how  a  child  in  all  harmlessness 
wishes  the  death  of  the  other  (or  any  other  person).  It  is  its 
rivalry:  were  it  not  so,  then  the  occasion  for  rivalry  and  jealousy 
would  be  removed. 

Between  brothers  and  sisters  this  relationship  of  rivalry  is 


8  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

milder  than  between  children  of  the  same  sex,  moderated  by  the 
sexual  attraction.     We  will  have  to  consider  this  point  later. 

New  opposition  arises  when  we  consider  the  relation  of  the 
child  to  the  parents  from  the  above  viewpoint.  How  can  one 
assume  that  the  child  wishes  the  death  of  the  father  or  the  mother  ? 
One  will  at  most  grant  this  in  such  cases  as  the  abuse  of  the  child 
by  the  parents,  but  will  add  that  these  are  fortunately  exceptional 
cases  to  whom  the  generalization  is  not  applicable. 

The  dream  of  the  death  of  the  father  or  mother,  as  it  occurs 
to  everyone,  contains  the  sought-for  explanation.  Freud  shows 
from  it  that  "  the  dream  of  the  death  of  parents  is  preponderat- 
ingly  common  concerning  that  one  of  the  pair  of  the  same  sex 
as  the  dreamer,  so  the  son,  for  the  most  part  dreams  of  the  death 
of  the  father,  the  daughter  of  the  death  of  the  mother."  This 
behavior  is  explained  in  part  as  due  to  an  early  sexual  preference 
of  the  son  for  the  mother,  the  daughter  for  the  father.  Out  of 
this  preference  grows  a  certain  rivalry  of  the  son  with  the  father 
for  the  love  of  the  mother,  and  a  similar  situation  between 
daughter  and  mother  for  the  love  of  the  father.  The  son  rebels 
earlier  or  later  against  the  patria  potestas,  in  some  cases  openly, 
in  others  inwardly.  At  the  same  time  the  father  protects  his 
dominance  against  the  growing  son.  A  similar  relation  occurs 
between  mother  and  daughter.  As  much  as  culture  may  soften 
or  change  this  rivalry,  through  piety  towards  the  parents,  through 
love  of  the  children,  still  its  traces  cannot  be  extinguished.  In 
the  most  favorable  cases  these  tendencies  become  repressed  in  the 
unconscious.  Straightway  they  express  themselves  in  dreams. 
Children,  who  are  disposed  to  nervous  or  psychic  disease,  show, 
already  in  the  early  years,  a  very  strong  love  or  a  very  strong 
repulsion  towards  the  parents  or  towards  one  of  them.  In  their 
dreams  they  show  these  tendencies  especially  clearly,  not  less 
clearly,  however,  in  the  symptoms  of  their  later  disease.  Freud 
gives  very  instructive  examples  of  this  kind.^     He  cites,  among 

'  "  Traumdeutiing,"  Seite  179  f. 


CHILDHOOD    PHANTASIES   IN    DREAMS   AND    MYTHS  9 

Others,  the  case  of  a  mentally  ill  girl  who  for  the  first  time,  in  a 
period  of  confusion,  expressed  violent  aversion  for  her  mother. 
As  the  patient  became  clearer  she  dreamt  of  the  death  of  her 
mother.  Finally  she  no  longer  contented  herself  with  repressing 
in  the  unconscious  her  feelings  against  her  mother,  but  proceeded 
to  over-compensate  for  that  feeling  by  constructing  a  phobia, 
that  is  a  morbid  fear,  that  something  might  happen  to  the  mother. 
The  aversion  became  transposed,  the  more  the  patient  gained  com- 
posure, into  an  excessive  apprehension  about  her  mother's  goings 
and  comings.     I  have  myself  lately  observed  a  quite  similar  case. 

As  complementary  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  dreams  of 
adults  not  infrequently  turn  on  the  death  of  a  child.  Pregnant 
women,  who  suffer  from  their  condition,  dream  of  an  abortion. 
Fathers  or  mothers,  who  in  the  waking  state  tenderly  love  their 
child,  dream  under  special  conditions  that  it  is  dead,  for  example, 
when  the  existence  of  the  child  interferes  with  the  attainment  of 
an  object. 

The  typical  dream  then  contains  wishes  which  we  in  our  wak- 
ing life  will  not  admit.  In  the  dream  life  these  secret  wishes  find 
expression.  These  wishes,  common  to  many  or  to  all  mankind, 
we  meet  also  in  the  myths.  The  first  point  of  comparison  to 
occupy  us  is,  then,  the  common  content  of  certain  dreams  and 
myths.  We  must  follow  Freud's  lead  still  further.  For,  as  men- 
tioned, he  has  first  analyzed  a  particular  myth — the  CEdipus  saga 
— from  the  viewpoint  set  forth  in  his  "  Traumdeutung."  I  cite 
literally  the  following  passage  from  Freud.* 

"  CEdipus,  son  of  Laius,  King  of  Thebes,  and  Jocasta,  was,  as 
a  suckling,  exposed,  because  an  oracle  had  prophesied  to  the 
father,  that  the  yet  unborn  son  would  be  his  murderer.  He  was 
saved  and  grew  up  as  a  king's  son  in  a  strange  court,  until  he, 
uncertain  of  his  origin,  questioned  the  oracle  himself  and  received 
from  it  the  advice,  to  avoid  his  home,  because  he  would  be  the 
murderer  of  his  father  and  the  mate  of  his  mother.     On  the  way 

"  "  Traumdeutung,"  Seite  180  f. 


10  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

from  his  supposed  home  he  fell  in  with  King  Laius  and  slew  him 
in  a  quickly  stirred  up  dispute.  Then  he  arrived  before  Thebes 
where  he  solved  the  riddle  of  the  sphinx  that  blocked  the  way  and 
as  reward  was  chosen  king  by  the  Thebans  and  given  Jocasta's 
hand  in  marriage.  He  reigned  a  long  time  in  peace  and  honor 
and  begot  with  his  unknown  mother  two  sons  and  two  daughters, 
until  a  pestilence  broke  out,  which  caused  the  Thebans  again  to 
consult  the  oracle.  Here  is  the  material  of  the  tragedy  of  Soph- 
ocles. The  messengers  brought  the  answer  that  the  plague  would 
cease  when  the  murderer  of  Laius  was  driven  from  th6  land. 
The  action  of  the  story  now  consists  only  in  the  step  by  step 
gradual  and  skillfully  delayed  unfolding — like  the  work  of  a  psy- 
choanalysis— of  the  fact  that  GEdipus  himself  was  the  murderer 
of  Laius  and  also  the  son  of  the  murdered  King  and  of  jocasta." 

The  CEdipus  tragedy  can  affect  us  today  as  deeply  as  at  the 
time  of  Sophocles,  although  we  do  not  share  the  views  of  gods 
and  fate,  and  the  belief  in  sayings  of  the  oracle.  Freud  concludes 
from  this  correctly  that  the  fable  must  contain  something  that 
calls  out  in  us  all  related  feelings.  "  For  us  all,  perhaps,  was  it 
decreed,  to  direct  the  first  sexual  feeling  to  the  mother,  the  first 
hate  and  violent  wish  against  the  father ;  our  dreams  convict  us  of 
that."  In  the  CEdipus  tragedy  we  see  our  childhood  wish  ful- 
filled, while  we  ourselves  have  recovered  from  the  sexual  attrac- 
tion of  the  mother  and  the  aversion  against  the  father  in  the 
course  of  our  development  through  feelings  of  love  and  piety. 

As  Freud  remarks,  the  tragedy  points  to  the  typical  dream  in 
which  the  dreamer  is  sexually  united  with  the  mother.  This 
point  is  the  purport  of  the  following: 

"  For  many  men  also  saw  themselves  in  dreams,  already  united 
with  their  mother." 

The  tragedy  contains  the  realization  of  two  intimate  childhood 
dream  phantasies :  The  phantasy  of  the  death  of  the  father  and  of 
the  love  relationship  with  the  mother.  The  results  of  their  reali- 
zation are  represented  to  us  in  all  their  terribleness. 


CHILDHOOD    PHANTASIES    IN    DREAMS    AND    MYTHS  I  I 

The  same  conflict  between  father  and  son  is  represented  in  the 
myth  of  Uranus  and  the  Titans.  Uranus  seeks  to  remove  his 
sons,  as  he  fears  their  encroachment  on  his  power.  His  son 
Cronus  took  revenge  by  castrating  his  father.  This  particular 
type  of  revenge  points  to  the  sexual  side  of  their  rivalry.  Then 
Cronus  seeks  to  secure  himself  in  the  same  manner  against  his 
children :  He  swallowed  them  all  except  the  youngest  son  Zeus. 
This  one  took  revenge  on  him,  compelled  him  to  disgorge  the 
other  children  and  then  banished  all  the  other  Titans  in  Tartarus ; 
according  to  another  version  Zeus  also  castrated  his  father. 


Ill 

Symbolism  in  Speech,  in  Dreams  and  in  Other  Phantasies 

Both  the  tales  of  CEdipus  and  of  Uranus  and  their  descendants 
have  not  only  a  related  content,  but  show  also  in  their  outer  form 
an  important  agreement.  In  both  there  is  lacking,  almost  alto- 
gether, the  symbolic  clothing.  We  learn  the  whole  story  from 
naked  words.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  this  is  also  true  of  the 
typical  dream,  which  we  have  drawn  upon  for  the  explanation  of 
these  myths.  Here  also — as  Freud  remarks — the  symbolic  cloth- 
ing is  found  in  strikingly  slight  development. 

In  general,  in  the  interpretation  of  dreams,  we  always  run 
across  anew  the  effects  of  a  psychic  determinant  which  Freud  has 
called  the  "censor."  This  will  occupy  our  attention  later;  here 
we  will  only  briefly  characterize  its  most  important  features.  The 
censor  will  not  permit  our  secret  wishes  to  show  themselves  in 
our  dreams  in  their  true,  undisguised  form,  but  forces  an  obscur- 
ing of  the  true  tendency  of  the  dream  through  the  "  dream  distor- 
tion." The  evasion  of  the  censor  is  accomplished  by  a  very  ex- 
tensive "  dream  work."  We  will  consider  its  manifestations  more 
in  detail  later.  Only  one  form  of  dream  distortion — the  symbolic 
clothing  of  the  wish — must  we  busy  ourselves  with  now.  The 
above  discussed  dream  of  the  death  of  the  father  and  sexual  rela- 
tions with  the  mother  is  a  striking  exception,  in  so  far  as  here 
the  wish,  which  appears  to  us  in  the  waking  state  as  abhorrent, 
is  represented  quite  openly,  without  symbolic  clothing,  as  fulfilled. 
Freud  explains  this  by  two  factors.  We  do  not  believe  our- 
selves further  from  any  wish  than  from  this  one;  the  censor  is 
not  occupied  with  such  monstrosities.  Secondly,  the  wish  may 
very  easily  be  concealed  behind  actual  apprehension  for  the  life 
of  the  beloved  person.     Now  it  is  of  the  greatest  interest  that 


SYMBOLISM    IN    SPUIECH  1 3 

the  CEdipus  saga  and  the  saga  of  Cronus  and  Zeus  are  also  very 
poor  in  symbolic  means  of  expression.  Every  man  believes  him- 
self in  his  waking  consciousness  infinitely  removed  from  the  hor- 
rors of  CEdipus  or  of  Cronus  in  his  relations  to  his  children  and 
to  his  father. 

We  state  provisionally  that  noteworthy  analogies  exist  between 
certain  myths  and  certain  dreams.  It  will  be  necessary  to  inquire 
further  whether  these  analogies  have  a  general  significance.  The 
analysis  of  most  myths — as  of  most  dreams — is  rendered  difficult 
by  the  symbolic  clothing  of  their  true  content.  Because  in  the 
CEdipus  saga,  as  in  the  typical  dreams  of  like  content,  this  com- 
plication does  not  exist,  they  serve  us  especially  well  as  an  intro- 
duction to  these  interesting  problems. 

The  majority  of  myths  are  presented  in  a  symbolic  manner 
and  so  in  reality  they  must  contain  something  or  mean  something 
that  their  outer  form  does  not  signify.  They  require,  like  the 
dream,  to  be  interpreted.  As  an  example  of  a  symbolic  myth  the 
Prometheus  saga  will  serve  us.  We  will  subject  this  to  a  method 
of  interpretation  similar  to  that  of  dream  analysis.  The  further 
issue  of  the  comparison  of  dreams  and  myths  we  shall  continue 
by  the  use  of  this  example. 

I  know  upon  what  contradictions  I  will  strike  if  I  aspire  to 
an  interpretation  of  myths  after  the  model  of  dream  interpreta- 
tion, and  if  I  maintain  that  here  as  well  as  there  the  same  sym- 
bolism governs.  It  is  Freud's  great  service  to  have  fathomed  this 
symbolism.  Thanks  to  this  study  we  have  learned  to  know  the 
important  relations  between  these  repeatedly  mentioned  psychic 
structures.  The  value  of  this  knowledge,  which  was  attained  by 
the  most  painstaking  studies,  is  absolutely  and  often  passionately 
disputed  by  the  critic.  By  the  opponents  of  Freud's  teachings 
the  interpretation  of  symbols  is  rejected  as  phantastic  and  arbi- 
trary. Freud  and  his  followers  are  laboring  under  the  power  of 
autosuggestion  which  makes  them  explain  everything  in  accord- 


14  DREAMS    AND    MYTHS 

ance  with  their  preconceived  ideas.  They  arouse  the  disHke  of 
their  critics  by  conceiving  the  symboHsm  of  dreams  and  related 
states  as  expressions  of  sexual  ideas.  None  of  Freud's  teachings, 
differing  as  they  do  so  much  from  those  commonly  held,  are  at- 
tacked with  such  violence  as  the  interpretation  of  symbolism. 
This  is  of  the  greatest  significance  for  our  further  progress. 
Therefore,  before  I  enter  upon  the  exposition  of  the  symbolism 
of  any  one  myth,  I  will  lay  the  broadest  possible  foundations  for 
this  part  of  my  studies.  To  this  end  I  will  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  symbolisms  investigated  by  Freud  lie  deep  in  every 
man  and  have  existed  at  all  times*  in  mankind.  Therefore  it  comes 
to  pass  that  preponderantly  the  expression  of  sexual  phantasies 
are  brought  about  by  sexual  symbolism.  My  following  deduc- 
tions rest  in  part  upon  the  valuable  writings  of  Kleinpaul.®  This 
author  has  also  seen  the  necessity  of  taking  a  stand  against  moral- 
izing critics.  I  will  cite  a  remark  of  Kleinpaul's^**  to  the  point: 
"We  must  point  out  the  fact  that  such  (i.  e.,  sexual)  phantasies 
do  not  belong  only  to  patriarchal  times,  where  they  were  natural, 
but  have  continued  up  to  the  present  time,  where  they  are  branded 
as  corrupt."  Sexual  symbolism,  I  assert,  is  a  psychological  phe- 
nomenon of  mankind  in  all  places  and  times.  In  the  beginnings 
of  our  culture  it  was  most  clearly  in  evidence,  and  in  a  less  crass 
but  always  clearer  form  it  has  asserted  itself  in  the  psychic  life 
of  mankind  up  to  the  present  day.  Kleinpaul  says  very  aptly, 
"  Man  sexualizes  everything." 

If  we  first  glance  at  the  beginning  of  the  plastic  arts,  we  find 
representations  of  the  human  sexual  parts  in  endless  profusion, 
sometimes  hidden,  sometimes  with  a  clearness  that  permits  of 
no  doubt.  Sometimes  their  forms  are  used  as  decorative  orna- 
ments, sometimes  vases,  pitchers,  and  other  utensils  of  the  most 
different  kinds  have  the  form  of  the  genitals.     In  the  art  products 

•  Kleinpaul,  "  Leben  der  Sprache,"  Bd.  i ;  "  Die  Ratsel  der  SprachCjJ' 
Bd.  2;  "Sprache  ohne  Worte,"  Bd.  3;  "Das  Stromgebiet  der  Sprache."^ 
"  "  Sprache  ohne  Worte,"  Leipzig,  1890,  Seite  490. 


SYMBOLISM    IN    SPEECH  I  5 

of  the  most  different  peoples  we  find  objects,  which  according  to 
the  type,  have  borrowed  their  form  and  also  bear  the  name. 
Egyptian,  Greek,  Etruscan  and  Roman  vessels  and  utensils  are 
convincing  signs  of  this  sexual  symbolism  existing  at  all  times  in 
the  folks.  If  we  consider  the  art  work  and  utensils  of  peoples 
poor  in  culture  we  make  the  same  observation — otherwise  we 
must  intentionally  close  our  eyes.  The  literature  of  art  is  another 
wide  and  fruitful  territory  for  work,  for  observations  of  this  kind 
are  widely  scattered  in  the  literature. 

A  perhaps  greater  significance  is  assumed  by  sexual  symbolism 
in  the  religious  cults  of  all  peoples.  Numerous  practices  show 
sexual  symbolism.  The  cult,  extensive  in  many  peoples,  of  fruit- 
fullness,  gives  occasion  for  the  most  wanton  symbolism  which  in 
no  wise  simply  expresses  itself  in  the  grossly  unequivocal  (phal- 
lus, etc.). 

We  do  not  need  at  all,  however,  to  seek  so  far  from  the  daily 
walks  of  life.  Our  speech  itself  is  the  best  sign  for  the  signifi- 
cance which  the  sexual  has  had  in  the  thoughts  of  mankind  at  all 
times.  All  indogermanic  and  Semitic  languages  possess  (or  did 
possess  in  earlier  times)  gender.  That  is  a  fact  that  is  commonly 
little  regarded.  However  let  us  ask  ourselves:  Why  have  the 
words  in  our  language  masculine  and  feminine  gender?  Why 
does  language  attribute  to  lifeless  objects  one  or  the  other  sex? 
A  part  of  the  indogermanic  languages  have  even  a  third  gender ; 
in  which  are  included  those  words  which  find  no  place  in  the  two 
other  categories,  either  because  phantasy  seeks  in  vain  a  sexual 
analogy  or  because  on  some  special  ground  sexual  neutrality  is  to 
be  emphasized.  Indeed  the  reason  why  an  object  has  the  one 
and  not  the  other  sex  is  in  no  way  always  easy  to  discover.  It 
is  also  to  be  remembered  that  many  substantives  not  seldom  have 
different  genders  in  two  nearly  related  languages.  It  would  lead 
much  too  far  if  we  were  to  go  into  this  highly  interesting  problem 
of  philology.     We  shall  only  refer  here  to  certain  rules,  espe- 


1 6  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

cially  of  the  German  language.  In  the  German  language  all 
diminutives  belong  to  the  neuter  gender.  The  folk  phantasy  com- 
pares them  to  undeveloped,  not  full  grown  persons.  Of  small 
children  we  say  by  preference  "it"  and  treat  them  as  neuters; 
in  many  places  grown  girls  are  spoken  of  still  as  "  it "  so  long 
only  as  they  are  not  married.  Maiden  (Madchen)  and  Miss 
(Fraulein)  are  diminutive  and  therefore  neuter  until  they  marry. 
Animals  have  many  quite  different  names  according  as  to  whether 
they  are  male  or  female.  Other  animals,  however,  are  considered 
under  one  of  the  three  grammatical  sexes  whether  feminine  or 
masculine.  In  certain  cases  the  cause  is  apparent.  Of  the  animals, 
those  are  masculine  in  which  one  finds  the  characteristics  which 
belong  to  the  man,  as  especially  bodily  strength,  courage,  etc. 
Therefore  the  great  beasts  and  birds  of  prey  are  masculine.  Cat 
(Die  Katze)  we  generally  use  as  feminine;  her  submissive  nature, 
her  grace  and  adroitness  remind  one  of  feminine  characteristics. 
These  examples  are  sufficient. 

That  also  lifeless  things  are  sexualized  in  speech  is  a  still  more 
noteworthy  fact.  There  are  objects,  which,  in  the  different  lan- 
guages, are  regularly  or  preferably  given  a  certain  sex.  Here  is 
presented  some  of  the  familiar  sexual  symbolisms  of  different 
peoples.  The  ship,  in  German,  bears  by  preference  the  feminine 
gender.  Also  the  name  given  to  the  ship  is  usually  feminine,  even 
though  it  is  otherwise  masculine.  So  in  the  English  language, 
which  only  shows  the  rudiments  of  a  sexual  differentiation,  the 
ship  is  feminine;  but  the  battleship  is  compared  to  the  fighting 
man  and  called  "  man-of-war."  It  is  significant  for  this  concep- 
tion that  we  find  on  the  keel  of  many  ships  a  female  figure  as  an 
ornament.  "  In  seamen's  eyes  the  ship  not  simply  has  shoulders 
and  a  stern,  it  is  comparable  to  the  ark,  that  conceals  the  germ 
of  life,  to  the  mystic  casket  that  was  borne  by  the  women  at  the 
feasts  of  Demeter  and  Dionysus.  It  is  like  the  mate  of  the  Indian 
god  Siva,  it  moves  on  the  sea  with  the  mast  as  with  a  phallus  " 


SYMBOLISM    IN    SPEECH  1 7 

(Kleinpaul).  I  would  like  to  mention  here  still  another  idea. 
The  sailor  lives,  often  for  a  long  time,  separated  from  his  wife 
while  he  is  bound  to  his  ship.  He  lives  with  his  ship  as  the  lands- 
man lives  with  his  wife  and  family.  So  the  ship  becomes  figura- 
tively the  sailor's  wife. 

The  pupil  of  the  human  eye,  which  appears  as  a  round,  black 
spot  is  sexualized  in  the  same  way  in  the  most  different  languages. 
"  Pupilla"  in  Latin  signifies  a  maiden ;  the  Greek  Koprj,  the  Spanish 
nina,  the  Sanskrit  Kauna,  have  all  the  same  sense.  The  Hebrew 
has  two  expressions,  one  signifies  maiden  (Madchen),  the  other 
little  man  (Mannlein).  The  little  reflection  that  one  sees  of  him- 
self in  the  pupil  of  another,  according  to  the  view  of  most  investi- 
gators, gives  the  occasion  for  this  naming.  Kleinpaul  protests 
against  this  poetic  explanation  and  offers  a  more  naturalistic  one. 
The  round  spot  in  the  middle  of  the  iris  is  compared  by  a  naive 
phantasy  with  a  hole  and  is  treated  as  a  gross  symbol  for  the 
female  sex,  quite  as  happens,  for  example,  with  the  ear.  Which- 
ever explanation  may  be  correct — ^the  fact  remains  of  the  sexual- 
izing  of  wholly  asexual  objects. 

In  certain  German  dialects  hooks  and  eyes  indicate  masculine 
and  feminine.  Expressions  like  mother,  matrix,  punch  exist  in 
the  most  various  trades;  there  is  always  expressed  a  cavity  and 
a  pin  which  fits  in  it.  In  Italian  there  are  masculine  and  feminine 
keys  according  as  they  have  solid  or  hollow  ends  to  oppose  to 
the  lock. 

We  speak  of  cities,  yes  of  whole  countries  as  female.  Nearly 
all  trees  are,  for  us,  feminine;  manifestly  the  bearing  of  fruit  is 
the  tertium  comparationis.  In  Latin  the  femininity  of  trees  is  a 
strongly  supported  rule  ("Die  Weiber,  Baume,  Stadte,  Land," 
etc.). 

I  confine  myself  to  a  few  pregnant  examples.  If  one  dips  a 
little  into  the  study  of  his  own  tongue  he  everywhere  runs  across 
this  sexual  symbolism.  Kleinpaul's  "  Das  Stromgebiet  der 
Sprache"  offers  rich  material  in  this  respect. 


1 8  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

Human  fancy  imputes  sex  also  to  lifeless  objects.  This 
shows  the  powerful  significance  of  the  sexual  in  human  phantasy. 
It  follows  further,  that  man  in  no  way  stands  to  lifeless  objects 
in  a  clearly  objective  but  in  a  distinctly  subjective  relation,  which 
springs  from  his  sexuality.  It  lies  deep  in  the  nature  of  man 
that  he  should  attribute  life  to  the  things  that  surround  him: 
the  child  scolds  and  strikes  the  table  on  which  he  has  struck 
himself.  Man  does  not  confine  himself  however  to  attributing 
life  to  things  but  he  sexualizes  them  also.  And  so  we  come  to 
an  understanding  of  the  view  of  Kleinpaul  above,  that  man  sex- 
ualizes everything.  It  is  noteworthy  that  investigations  in  lan- 
guage and  biologico-medical  investigations  lead  in  this  particular 
to  the  same  results. 

As  Freud"  has  shown,  the  sexual  impulse  of  man  in  its  early 
stages  is  auto-erotic,  that  is,  man  does  not  yet  know  any  object 
outside  of  himself  on  which  he  is  able  to  concentrate  his  libido. 
At  first  the  libido  gradually  turns  to  other  objects,  at  this  time, 
however,  not  only  human  and  living,  but  also  lifeless.  It  will 
be  the  object  of  another  publication  to  deal  with  this  radiation 
of  the  sexuality,  especially  of  the  abnormalities  in  this  territory, 
which  for  the  comprehension  of  certain  mental  disorders  are  of 
very  broad  significance. 

We  have  established,  that  all  mankind  from  the  beginning, 
has  given  great  weight  to  the  sexual  differences.  Human  sex- 
uality displays  a  need  of  expansion  far  beyond  the  object  of  sex- 
ual satisfaction.  Man  permeates  and  impresses  everything  in  his 
environment  with  his  sexuality  and  language  is  the  witness  of  his, 
at  all  times,  creative  sexual  phantasy.  Such  facts  appear  notably 
opposed  to  the  reproach  that  Freud  and  his  followers  overesti- 
mate the  role  of  the  sexuality  in  the  normal  and  pathological 
mental  life.  The  danger  of  underestimating  appears  to  me  to  lie 
much  nearer.     An  often  heard  objection  to  Freud  runs  further, 

"  See  "  Drei  Abhandlungen  zur  Sexualtheorie."  English  translation 
No.  7,  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Disease  Monograph  Series. 


SYMBOLISM    IN    SPEECH  I  9 

that  the  impulse  of  self-preservation  governs  human  life  to  a 
much  greater  extent  than  the  sexual  impulse;  the  prominent 
position  of  the  latter  is  therefore  an  exaggeration.  The  aim  of 
the  investigation  inaugurated  by  Freud  is  in  finding  in  every- 
thing a  sexual  meaning.  In  consciousness  certainly  the  impulse 
of  self-preservation  with  its  radiations  may  often  enough  have 
precedence.  The  opponents  of  Freud,  however,  commit  the  error 
that  only  conscious  processes  are  referred  to.  Freud  has  never 
maintained  that  the  conscious  sexual  ideas  have,  among  all  the 
others,  unconditioned  superiority.  It  is  precisely  the  uncon- 
scious, repressed  ideas  which  influence  phantasy  in  the  strongest 
manner. 

All  objections  brought  against  Freud's  sexual  theory  melt 
away  into  nothing  if  we  only  consider  our  mother  tongue.  Lan- 
guage springs,  as  nothing  else  does,  from  the  innermost  being  of 
a  people.  Out  of  it  speaks  the  phantasy  of  a  people ;  it  expresses 
itself  in  a  thousand  symbols  and  analogies  of  which  we  ourselves 
are  hardly  conscious  anymore.  We  do  not  speak  a  sentence  in 
which  a  symbolic  expression  does  not  occur.  This  symbolism  is, 
however,  in  an  important  and  weighty  part,  of  a  sexual  char- 
acter. I  return  once  more  to  the  fact  that  there  are  in  our  lan- 
guage masculine,  feminine,  and  sexless  (neuter)  words.  If 
the  opponents  of  Freud  are  right,  that  is  if  in  reality  the  impulse 
of  self-preservation  and  not  the  sex  impulse  plays  the  predomi- 
nant role  in  the  mental  life  of  man,  it  must  be  very  surprising 
that  the  language  is  divided  according  to  sexual  viewpoints! 
Why  does  not  language  rather  discriminate  things  according  as 
to  whether  they  are  favorable  or  not  to  our  impulse  to  self- 
preservation?  Why  not  differentiate  instead  of  masculine,  fem- 
inine, and  sexless  things  perhaps  edible,  potable,  and  as  a  third 
category,  inedible  things?  There  are  a  number  of  objects  and 
activities  which  since  the  earliest  times  have  served  as  sexual 
symbols.     We  find  them  with   this  meaning  in  the   Bible,   the 


20  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

Vedas,  in  the  Greek  and  in  the  Norse  myths,  in  the  poetry  of 
the  pre-historic  times,  in  dreams  and  so  forth,  again  and  again. 
Here  belongs,  for  example,  the  serpent  as  a  symbol  of  the  male 
member.  In  Genesis  it  is  the  seducer  of  Eve.  In  the  German 
and  Norse  legends  we  again  find  the  serpent  with  the  same 
significance.^^  The  serpent  plays  an  important  role  in  the  dreams 
of  women;  the  significance  of  the  symbol  seems  to  be  evident. 
The  superstitious  fear  of  the  snalce  is  surely  dependent  upon  the 
same  idea.^^  We  hear,  not  infrequently,  from  mentally  ill 
women  that  they  have  been  attacked  by  snakes,  that  they  have 
crawled  into  their  genitals  or  their  mouth.  We  know  that  the 
mouth  in  this  sense  is  only  a  substitute  for  the  vulva.  (Freud's 
"  Verlegung  nach  oben."  Compare  also  Riklin's  writings  already 
cited.) 

Another  very  popular  symbol  is  the  apple  which  represents 
the  fruitfulness  of  the  woman.  Eve  seduced  Adam  with  the 
apple.^* 

The  depth  of  sexual  symbolism  in  man  is  shown  in  a  very 
instructive  way  in  the  associations  experiment.  Stimulus  words 
are  called  out  to  the  subject  to  which  he  must  react  with  other 
words  occurring  to  him.  The  choice  of  the  reaction  word  as 
well  as  certain  signs  accompanying  the  reaction  show,  in  many 
cases,  that  the  stimulus  word  has  hit  upon,  through  an  associative 
path-way,  a  "  complex,"  existing  in  the  subject,  of  a  sexual 
nature.^^     The  readiness,  even  of  the  most  innocent  words  to  as- 

"  Riklin,  "  Psychologic  und  Sexualsymbolik  der  Marchen." 

"  Compare  remarks  on  p.  58. 

"  One  symbol  of  fruitfulness  is  the  pomegranate  evidently  on  account 
of  its  many  seeds.  It  is  therefore  the  attribute  of  Juno  the  goddess  of 
wedlock.  The  poppy-head,  rich  in  seeds,  is  an  attribute  of  Venus.  In  one 
saga  Venus  changed  herself  into  a  carp;  the  great  number  of  eggs  bom 
by  the  female  carp  was  proverbial  in  ancient  times.  In  many  countries 
at  the  time  of  the  wedding  the  bridal  pair  are  pelted  with  rice.  Similar 
practices  prevail  in  many  places ;  it  signifies  the  blessing  of  children. 
Compare  Kleinpaul,  "  Sprache  ohne  Worte,"  p.  27. 

^^  In  the  work  of  the  Zurich  psychiatric  clinic  (especially  in  that  of 
Jung  "  Diagnostischen  Assoziationsstudien  ")  the  term  "  complex  "  is  used 
for  a  strongly  feeling-toned  group  of  ideas,  which  has  the  tendency  to  split 
off  from  consciousness  and  be  repressed  into  the  unconscious. 


SYMBOLISM    IN    SPEECH  21 

similatc  to  the  complex,  in  the  symbolic  sense  of  the  complex,  is 
often  enormous.  This  tendency  does  not  at  all  come  into  the 
consciousness  of  the  subject  when  he  answers  with  the  reaction 
word.  In  many  cases  they  can  themselves  explain  the  depend- 
ence of  the  reaction  word  on  a  sexual  complex  whereby  they 
must  overcome  a  more  or  less  strong  inhibition.  In  other  cases 
a  more  difficult  analytic  effort  is  required  on  the  part  of  the 
investigator  in  order  to  uncover  the  connection.  Whoever  has 
some  experience  in  the  technic  of  the  experiment  and  psycho- 
analysis, will  find  enough  evidence  in  the  reaction  and  the  accom- 
panying signs,  in  order  to  give  his  questions  the  right  direction. 
In  the  Zurich  psychiatric  clinic  a  list  of  one  hundred  stimulus 
words  is  in  use ;  their  use  by  very  many  persons  has  given  inter- 
esting results  relative  to  the  sexual  symbolism  of  the  uncon- 
scious, which  besides,  Freud  has  fully  covered  by  results  obtained 
in  other  ways. 

Some  examples  might  serve  to  explain.  A  stimulus  word,  that 
calls  forth  striking  psychic  phenomena  with  great  regularity  is 
the  verb  "to  plough"  (pfliigen).  As  an  experimental  stimulus 
word  it  produces  in  the  subject  all  those  appearances  that  we 
have  learned  to  recognize,  through  experience,  as  signs  of  an 
emotion :  Lengthening  of  the  reaction  time,  failure  to  under- 
stand or  repetition  of  the  stimulus  word,  stuttering  in  pronounc- 
ing the  stimulus  word,  signs  of  embarrassment,  etc.  Evidently 
"to  plow"  is  considered  by  the  subject  as  a  symbolic  representa- 
tion of  the  sexual  act.  It  is  interesting  that  in  Greek  and  Latin  as 
well  as  in  the  Oriental  languages  "  to  plow  "  is  used  quite  generally 
in  this  sense.^^  Other  stimulus  words  such  as  "long"  (lang), 
"mast"  (Mast),  "needle"  (Nadel),  "narrow"  (eng),  "part" 
(Teil),  are  with  astonishing  regularity  assimilated  in  a  sexual 
sense.  We  take  up  words,  which  are  commonly  used  without 
such  association,  in  a  sexual  sense.  If  a  strong  sexual  complex 
is  present  this  tendency  is  especially  great. 

"  Kleinpaul,  "  Ratsel  der  Sprache,"  p.  136. 


22  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

In  the  face  of  such  facts  it  appears  quite  clear  to  me  that 
symbolism,  and  especially  the  sexual,  is  a  common  possession 
of  all  mankind.  The  objection,  that  symbolism,  or  the  signifi- 
cance ascribed  to  it,  exists  only  in  the  phantasy  of  a  biased  in- 
vestigator falls  down.  KleinpauP^  expresses  his  meaning  on  this 
point  with  great  precision  and  exactness :  "  Symbols  are  not  made, 
but  they  are  there ;  they  are  not  invented,  but  only  discovered."^^ 

I  will  not  be  satisfied  to  refer  to  Freud's  deductions  and  the 
example  of  a  dream  analyzed  by  him,  but  will  give  here  a 
fragment  of  a  dream  analysis,  so  far  as  it  is  necessary  for  the 
explanation  of  the  symbolism;  the  remaining  dream  material, 
for  reasons  of  brevity,  I  will  not  consider.  The  dream,  which 
was  told  to  me  by  an  acquaintance,  runs  as  follows: 

"  I  am  alone  in  a  long  room.  Suddenly  I  hear  a  subterra- 
nean noise,  which  does  not  astonish  me,  however,  as  I  immediately 
remember,  that  from  a  place  below  a  subterranean  canal  runs 
out  to  the  water.  I  lift  up  a  trap-door  in  the  floor,  and  imme- 
diately a  creature  appears  clothed  in  a  brownish  fur  that  resem- 
bled very  nearly  a  seal.  It  threw  off  the  fur  and  appeared  clearly 
as  my  brother,  who  prayed  of  me,  exhausted  and  breathless,  to 
give  him  shelter,  as  he  had  run  away  without  permission  and 

"  Kleinpaul,  "  Sprache  ohne  Worte,"  p.  26. 

"The  critics  of  Freud  disdain  to  busy  themselves  seriously  with  sym- 
bols and  their  nature.  Recently,  for  example,  Weygandt  ("  Kritische 
Bemerkungen  zur  Psychologie  der  Dementia  praecox,"  Monatsschrift  fiir 
Psychiatrie  und  Neurologie,  Bd.  22,  1907)  has  attempted  designedly  to 
attribute  the  most  absurd  meaning  to  the  symptoms  of  a  dream  state.  He 
believes  to  have  shown  thereby  the  arbitrariness  and  absurdity  of  the 
Freudian  method  of  interpretation.  Here  the  fundamental  error  of  the 
critic  is  manifest.  It  is  believed  that  the  symbol  is  arbitrarily  invented, 
consciously  produceable.  It  follows,  however,  from  Freud's  writings  that 
symbolism  has  its  roots  in  the  unconscious.  Always  then,  when  the  domi- 
nation of  the  conscious  is  wholly  or  partially  abolished — in  sleep,  in  dream 
states,  in  states  of  disturbed  attention — repressed  ideational  material 
emerges.  These  ideas  appear  in  disguised  form;  they  avail  themselves  of 
symbolism.  As  Bleuler  deduces  ("Freudsche  Mechanismen  in  der  Symp- 
tomatologie  der  Psychosen,"  Psychiatr.-neurol.  Wochenschrift,  1906) 
symbolism  depends  upon  a  lower  form  of  associative  activity,  which  instead 
of  logical  connection  makes  use  of  vague  analogies.  Of  this  sort  of 
associative  activity  we  are  not  at  all  capable  in  times  of  clear  conscious- 
ness and  alert  attention.  Symbolism  consequently  can  not  be  arbitrarily 
invented. 


SYMBOLISM    IN    SPEECH  23 

swum  under  water  the  whole  way.  I  induced  him  to  stretch  him- 
self out  on  a  couch  in  the  room,  and  he  fell  asleep.  A  few  mo- 
ments later  I  heard  renewed  a  much  louder  noise  at  the  door. 
My  brother  sprang  up  with  a  cry  of  terror:  they  will  take  me, 
they  will  think  I  have  deserted :  He  slipped  on  his  furs  and  tried 
to  escape  through  the  subterranean  canal,  turned  about  imme- 
diately, however,  and  said:  Nothing  can  be  done,  they  have 
occupied  the  passage  from  here  to  the  water !  At  this  moment 
the  door  sprung  open  and  several  men  rushed  in  and  seized  my 
brother.  I  cried  to  them  despairingly:  he  has  done  nothing,  I 
will  plead  for  him ! — At  this  moment  I  awoke." 

The  dreamer  had  been  married  for  some  time  and  was  in  the 
early  period  of  pregnancy.  She  looks  forward  to  her  confine- 
ment, not  without  anxiety.  In  the  evening  she  had  had  various 
things  about  the  development  and  physiology  of  the  fetus  ex- 
plained to  her  by  her  physician.  She  had  already  pretty  well 
oriented  herself  in  relation  to  the  whole  subject  from  books  but 
still  had  some  erroneous  ideas.  She  had,  for  example,  not  cor- 
rectly grasped  the  significance  of  the  waters.  Further,  she  rep- 
resented to  herself  the  fine  fetal  hair  (lanugo)  as  thick  like  that 
on  a  young  animal. 

The  canal  that  leads  directly  into  the  water  =  the  birth  canal. 
Water  =:  amniotic  fluid.  Out  of  this  canal  comes  a  hairy  animal 
like  a  seal.  The  seal  is  a  hairy  animal  that  lives  in  water  quite 
as  the  fetus  lives  in  the  amniotic  fluid.  This  creature,  the  ex- 
pected child,  appears  immediately :  quick,  easy  confinement.  It 
appears  as  the  brother  of  the  dreamer.  The  brother  is,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  considerably  younger  than  the  dreamer.  After 
the  early  death  of  the  mother  she  had  to  care  for  him  and  stood 
in  a  relationship  to  him  that  had  much  of  motherliness  in  it. 
She  still  preferably  called  him  the  "  little  one  "  and  both  younger 
children  together  "the  children."  The  younger  brother  repre- 
sented the  expected  child.     She  wished   for  a  visit  from  him 


24  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

(she  lived  at  a  considerable  distance  from  her  family),  so  she 
awaited  first  the  brother,  second  the  child.  Here  is  the  second 
analogy  between  brother  and  child.  She  wished,  because  of 
reasons  that  have  no  particular  interest  here,  that  her  brother 
leave  his  place  of  residence.  Therefore  he  has  "  deserted  "  his 
residence  in  the  dream.  The  place  lies  on  the  water;  he  swims 
there  very  often  (the  third  analogy  with  the  fetus!).  Also  her 
residence  lies  on  the  water.  The  small  room,  in  which  she  had 
the  dream,  has  an  outlook  upon  the  water.  In  the  room  stands 
a  lounge  that  can  be  used  as  a  bed ;  it  serves  as  a  bed  when  there 
is  a  guest  who  remains  over  night.  She  awaited  her  brother,  as 
such  a  guest,  in  this  room.  A  fourth  analogy:  the  room  will 
later  become  a  nursery,  the  baby  will  sleep  there ! 

The  brother  is  breathless  when  he  arrives.  He  has  swum 
under  the  water.  Also  the  fetus,  when  it  has  left  the  canal, 
must  struggle  for  breath.  The  brother  falls  to  sleep  at  once  like 
a  child  soon  after  its  birth. 

Now  follows  a  scene  in  which  the  brother  exhibits  a  lively 
anxiety  in  a  situation  out  of  which  there  is  no  escape.  One  such 
imminent  to  the  dreamer  herself  is  the  confinement.  This  pre- 
pares anxiety  for  her  already  in  advance.  In  the  dream  she 
displaces  the  anxiety  to  the  fetus  by  way  of  the  brother  repre- 
senting it.  She  induces  him  to  lie  down  because  he  is  so  ex- 
hausted. After  the  confinement  she  will  be  exhausted  and  lie 
down — in  the  dream  she  is  active  and  lets  the  brother  lie  down. 
She  extends  the  afifair  in  still  another  way:  The  brother  is  a 
jurist  and  must  act  as  an  advocate,  "plead."  This  role  she  takes 
from  him,  she  will  plead  for  him.  Therefore  she  displaces  her 
anxiety  on  him. 

This  dream  contains  symbols  which  may  serve  as  typical 
examples.  Between  a  child  and  a  seal,  between  a  subterranean 
canal  and  the  birth  canal  there  exist  only  vague  analogies.  Not- 
withstanding one   is   used    for   the   other   in   the   dream.     The 


SYMBOLISM    IN    SPEECH  2$ 

brother  of  the  dreamer  appears  in  place  of  the  child,  although 
he  has  been  grown  up  for  a  long  time.  For  her  he  is  just  the 
little  one  (der  Kleine).  The  dream  makes  use  by  preference  of 
such  words  which  can  be  understood  in  different  senses. 

The  wish- fulfilling  of  this  dream  is  in  part  evident :  The  wish 
for  an  easy  confinement  about  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  be 
anxious,  and  the  wish  to  be  able  to  care  for  the  brother.  It  is 
probable  that  this,  not  fully  and  finally  interpreted  dream,  con- 
tains still  a  further  concealed  wish-fulfillment  within  itself. 

In  order  to  show  that  certain  psychopathological  states  have 
the  same  sort  of  symbolism  I  will  give  only  one  example.  The 
hallucinations  of  the  mentally  deranged  whether  they  continue  for 
many  years  or  only  appear  transitorily  during  a  dream  state,  re- 
semble the  dream  pictures  to  an  extraordinary  extent.  The  an- 
alysis shows  that  it  is  not  simply  a  superficial  similarity. 

A  little  girl  when  ten  years  of  age  was  abused  by  her  uncle, 
a  drunkard,  in  the  barn  near  her  parents'  house.  He  had  threat- 
ened to  set  the  house  on  fire  if  she  resisted  him.  Through  the 
intimidation  of  the  threats  she  yielded  to  the  uncle  several  times. 
On  one  occasion  of  this  sort  her  mind  became  disordered,  the 
memory  crystallized  on  the  sexual  outrage  and  self-reproach, 
which  she  had  on  account  of  her  compliance,  the  real  content  of 
the  psychosis  and  which  determined  the  symptoms.  She  con- 
cealed herself  behind  a  sexual  symbolism  which  was  throughout 
in  accord  with  the  dream  symbolism.  From  the  original  account 
of  this  case  which  I  have  already  published^^  I  will  cite  this  in- 
teresting sentence:  The  patient  suffered  for  many  years  with 
nocturnal  visions,  she  saw  especially  the  burning  barn.  This 
vision  is  plainly  doubly  determined;  the  uncle  had  threatened  to 
start  a  fire  and  had  abused  her  in  the  barn.  Besides  she  had 
frightful  dreams.  Once  there  came  a  lot  of  owls;  they  looked 
at  her  sharply,  flew  at  her,  tore  off  her  covering  and  smock  and 

^' "  tjber  die  Bedeutung  sexueller  Jugendtraumen  fiir  die  Symptom- 
atologie  der  Dementia  praecox,"  Zentralhlatt  f.  Nervenheilk.,  1907. 


26  DREAMS    AND    MYTHS 

cried:  shame  on  you,  you  are  naked!  This  is  plainly  a  reminis- 
cence of  the  outrage.  Later  in  the  waking  state,  she  saw  hell. 
The  scene  which  she  saw  here  was  strongly  sexually  colored. 
She  saw  "transformed  creatures,"  half  animal,  half  human,  as 
snakes,  tigers,  owls.  There  appeared  also  drunkards  who 
changed  into  tigers  and  attacked  female  animals.  In  the  wish- 
fulfillments  contained  in  these  visions  and  dreams  one  recognizes 
the  whole  history  of  the  case.  Here  is  sufficient  to  understand 
the  symbol.  Especially  interesting  is  the  incorporation  of  the 
uncle  of  the  patient  in  the  "  transformed  creature,"  which  was 
compounded  of  the  drunkard  and  the  tiger.  The  drunkenness 
and  beastly  roughness  of  the  uncle  were  united  in  a  symbol. 
The  serpent,  in  a  clearly  sexual  scene,  can  have  no  other  mean- 
ing than  that  we  have  already  learned  to  know.  Certain  species 
of  animals  play  a  large  role  as  sexual  symbols  in  dreams  and  in 
the  psychoses.  One  patient  I  knew,  who  was  very  erotic  and  who 
suffered  from  hebephrenia  gave  the  name  of  "  beauty  beasts " 
(Schonheitstiere)  to  the  animals  that  appeared  to  her  in  hallu- 
cinations. A  euphemism  which  is  still  not  fully  free  from  the 
erotic ! 

Riklin  has  accumulated  excellent  examples  of  this  kind  from 
the  legends  of  different  peoples.  Finally  I  may  refer  to  the 
symbolism  in  the  novel  of  Jensen  analyzed  by  Freud. 


IV 

Analysis  of  the  Prometheus  Saga 

Through  the  most  different  kinds  of  human  phantasy  the  same 
symboHsm  runs  which  in  a  very  substantial  part  is  sexual.  I 
turn  now  to  the  analysis  of  the  myth.  While  we  will  only  busy 
ourselves  with  the  symbolism  in  its  construction  it  presents  still 
other  important  analogies  with  dreams. 

According  to  the  view  of  the  Greeks  Prometheus  created  man 
and  then  robbed  the  gods  of  fire  in  order  to  bring  it  to  his  crea- 
tures. That  man  was  created  by  a  higher  being  is  an  idea  which 
we  meet  among  the  most  varied  peoples.  Although  perfectly 
familiar  to  us  it  is  still  lacking  an  explanation.  The  account  of 
the  creator  of  man  as  not  a  true  god-head  and  also  not  a  man, 
who  robbed  the  gods  of  fire  and  thus  came  in  conflict  with  Zeus, 
is  likewise  in  need  of  explanation.  Kuhn  is  the  founder  of  com- 
parative mythology ;  to  him  the  science  is  indebted  for  a  number 
of  fundamental  studies  of  different  mythological  figures.  It 
follows  from  these  that  certain  of  the  common  traditions  of  the 
Indogermanic  folks  are  contained  in  the  Indian  Vedas  in  much 
more  original  form  than  they  were  known  from  the  Greek  and 
other  origins.  So  he  succeeded  in  tracing  the  figures  of  Athene, 
the  Centaurs,  Orpheus,  Wotan,  and  other  gods  and  heroes  of 
the  Greek  and  Germanic  myths,  to  Vedic  origins  and  thereby  has 
been  able  to  give  the  true  explanation  of  the  sense  of  the  myths. 
Of  greater  significance  for  mythological  research  is  his  compre- 
hensive treatise  "tJber  die  Herabkunft  des  Feuers  und  des  Got- 
tertranks"  (1859,  new  edition  1886).  His  footsteps  were  forth- 
with followed  by  other  investigators  as  Delbriick,  Steinthal, 
Cohen,  Roth,  Max  Miiller,  Schwarz.     I  give  in  the  following 

27 


28  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

only  the  most  important  results  of  Kuhn's  researches,  confining 
myself  moreover  to  technical  grounds  preliminarily  of  the  myth 
of  the  origin  of  the  fire.  I  will  confine  myself  in  part  to  the  re- 
sume of  Kuhn's  work  which  SteinthaP"  has  given  in  a  critical 
review;  I  have  also  made  use  of  the  general  remarks  which 
Cohen^^  has  added  to  Kuhn's  deductions.  It  is  naturally  not 
possible  in  the  compass  of  this  presentation,  to  completely  present 
for  the  several  points  of  the  analysis,  the  proofs  of  comparative 
philology  and  mythology.  In  this  respect  I  must  refer  to  the 
original  as  well  as  to  the  two  works  of  Steinthal  and  Cohen 
named. 

So  far  the  investigations  give  us  the  explanation  that  all  Indo- 
germanic  peoples  produced  fire  by  rubbing.  We  can  point  to  this 
method  still  in  historical  times ;  even  the  technical  expressions  be- 
longing to  it  are  known  to  us.  Among  people  of  other  races  poor 
in  culture  we  still  meet  to-day  the  same  procedure.  How  man 
came  to  generate  fire  through  friction  may  remain  uncertain. 
According  to  Kuhn  nature  may  have  been  the  teacher  of  man: 
he  might  have  observed  in  the  primitive  forest,  how  a  dry  twig  of 
an  ivy,  moved  by  the  wind,  was  rubbed  in  the  hollow  of  a  branch 
and  then  broke  out  in  flames.  Peschel"  has  already  drawn  at- 
tention to  the  improbability  of  this  explanation;  he  thinks  that 
by  boring  and  other  mechanical  occupations  man  must  have 
learned  to  know  of  the  heating  of  two  objects  by  friction,  besides 
he  observed  similar  occurrences  in  nature. 

The  primitive  means  of  producing  fire  consisted  of  a  stick  of 
hard  wood  and  a  piece  of  soft  wood  which  contained  a  hollow. 
Through  turning  and  boring  movements  of  the  stick  in  the  hole 
the  wood  was  set  on  fire.  Fire  created  in  this  way  shows  the 
characteristic  that  after  a  time  it  goes  out ;  it  must  then  be  called 

"  Steinthal,  "  Die  Prometheussaga  in  ihrer  urspriinglichen  Gestalt," 
Zeitschrift.  f.  V olkerpsychologie  und  Sprachwissenschaft.  Bd.  2,  1862. 

"  Cohen,  H.,  "  Mythologische  Vorstellungen  von  Gott  und  Seele," 
Zeitschrift.  f.  V olkerpsychologie  und  Sprachwissenschaft,  Bd.  5  u.  6,  1868 
u.  1869. 

*•  Peschel,  "  Volkerkunde,"  6.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1885,  S.  141. 


ANALYSIS   OF   THE    PROMETHEUS    SAGA  29 

forth  anew.  Man  made  the  same  observation,  however,  about 
one  other  fire — namely,  the  heavenly.  In  the  heavens  the  fire  of 
the  sun  appears  to  him  daily,  warming  and  lighting;  sometimes 
he  saw  further  rays  of  fire  descending  from  heaven,  lighting  and 
burning.  The  heavenly  fire  also  goes  out  after  a  while.  So 
probably  there  must  be  something  in  heaven  that  burns  and  goes 
out.  According  to  a  very  ancient  idea  the  Indo-germanic  races 
beheld  in  the  cloud  formations  a  tree — the  earthly  ash  which  we 
meet  again  and  again  in  the  most  varied  myths.  The  wood  of 
the  ash  serves  man  as  a  means  of  making  fire.  When  they  saw 
the  fire  of  heaven  there  the  wood  of  the  heavenly  ash  was  burn- 
ing. The  lightning  darting  from  heaven  to  earth  was  fire  com- 
ing down  from  the  ash.  From  this  arose  the  belief  that  the 
earthly  fire  was  fire  descended  from  heaven.  The  quick  move- 
ment of  the  lightning  through  the  air  called  to  mind  the  flight  of 
birds;  from  this  arose  the  further  assumption,  a  bird,  which 
nested  in  the  heavenly  ash  has  brought  the  heavenly  fire  to  earth. 
In  the  myths  of  dififerent  peoples  and  at  different  times  it  is  the 
eagle,  the  hawk,  or  the  woodpecker,  that  have  been  assigned  this 
role.  Certain  kinds  of  trees,  for  example,  the  mountain  ash 
which  bears  red  fruit,  thorns  and  feathery  leaves  serve  as  a  trans- 
formation of  the  lightning  bird.  In  these  parts  are  recognized 
again  the  color,  claws,  and  feathers  of  the  birds. 

To  the  heavenly  and  earthly  fire  there  was  added  in  the  ideas 
of  the  Indo-germanic  myths  a  third  kind,  the  fire  of  life.  We 
touch  here  on  the  same  analogy  that  made  possible  the  identifi- 
cation of  the  heavenly  and  the  earthly  fires.  The  life  fire  must 
also  be  awakened.  So  long  as  it  dwells  in  the  body  the  body  is 
warm.  And  like  every  fire  the  life-fire  also  goes  out.  The  most 
apt  analogy  lay,  however,  in  the  production  and  the  preparation 
of  the  fire.  As  fire  is  produced  by  the  boring  of  a  stick  in  a 
disc  of  wood  so  is  human  life  created  in  the  mother's  womb. 
Many  are  the  evidences   for  this  conception  in  myths  and  in 


30  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

language.  I  will  only  mention  here  that  the  two  principal  parts 
of  the  primitive  apparatus  for  the  production  of  fire  often  bear 
the  names  of  the  male  and  female  genitals.  To  such  an  extent 
was  this  view  of  the  people  transferred  to  flesh  and  blood. 
Even  more:  We  find  the  same  identification  in  the  Semitic  lan- 
guages. In  Hebrew  the  expression  for  male  and  female  sig- 
nifies exactly  the  borer  and  the  hollowed. 

So  now  the  origin  of  the  life-fire,  the  creation  of  man,  like- 
wise is  transferred  above  to  the  ash.  From  it  comes  mankind 
like  the  fire;  from  it  also  man,  like  the  fire,  is  brought  by  a 
bird  to  the  earth.     The  stork  that  brings  the  children. 

A  later  epoch,  which  so  to  say,  settles  like  a  new  stratum 
in  the  myths,  concerns  the  man-like  gods.  It  retains  the  old  anal- 
ogy of  fire  and  life;  only  it  gives  it  a  new  form:  the  god  of  fire 
is  also  the  man-god.  In  the  Vedas  we  meet  a  god  Agni  (agni  = 
Latin  ignis,  fire),  who  incorporates  fire,  light,  sun  and  lightning, 
at  the  same  time,  however,  he  is  also  the  first  man.  In  the 
myths  of  different  peoples  Agni  is  also  at  the  same  time  the  light- 
ning-bird. Picus,  the  woodpecker,  was  in  the  oldest  Latin  myths 
the  fire-bird,  lightning  and  man.  A  Latin  version  of  the  myth 
makes  him  the  first  king  of  Latium;  besides,  however,  he  re- 
mained the  tutelar  god  of  lying-in  women  and  sucklings — con- 
sequently the  god  of  life. 

With  the  increasing  personification  of  the  gods  everything 
in  nature  became  either  a  product  or  an  attribute  of  the  gods. 
So  fire  was  now  no  longer  a  god  but  was  produced  by  a  god.  A 
god  starts  the  sun  fire,  which  had  expired,  by  boring  in  the  sun 
disc  anew  each  morning;  he  produces  lightning  when  he  casts  a 
dart  in  the  storm  clouds.  As  with  the  heavenly  fire  so  with  the 
earthly,  it  must  always  be  generated  anew.  When  the  fire  goes 
out  Agni  has  disappeared;  he  must  have  hidden  himself.  As  he 
hides  himself  in  heaven  in  a  cloud  (the  cloud  tree),  so  he  hides 
himself  on  earth  in  the  wooden  disc,  from  which  he  can  be  called 


AN^VLYSIS   OF   THE    PROMETHEUS    SAGA  3  I 

forth  by  boring  and  rubbing.  Here  we  meet  a  new  personage 
in  the  myth,  whose  oldest  name  (in  the  Vedas)  is  Matarichvan. 
Matarichvan  brings  Agni,  who  is.  hidden  in  the  clouds  or  in  the 
woods,  back  to  earth.  According  to  another  version  he  finds 
Agni  in  a  cavern.  He  brings  to  man  the  light  and  warmth  which 
he  needs  to  live.  His  nam6  signifies  "  he  who  swells  or  works  in 
the  mother  " — that  is  again  lightning  or  the  boring  stick. 

Matarichvan,  the  fire-bringer,  corresponds  in  the  Greek  myth 
to  Prometheus.  In  historical  times  the  name  Prometheus,  which 
has  experienced  various  changes,  has  been  interpreted  as  "  fore- 
thought," As  an  older  form  he  is,  among  other  things,  referred 
to  as  "  Pramantha."  This  name  has  a  double  meaning.  It  sig- 
nifies first  the  "  forth-rubber,"  that  is,  one  who  through  rubbing 
brings  something  forth. 

Through  rubbing  he  brings  the  fire  forth  and  generates  man. 
Here  it  is  to  be  noted  that  "  matha  "  signifies  the  male  genitals. 
The  second  meaning  of  Pramantha  is  the  fire-robber.  Close  to 
the  idea  that  Prometheus-Pramantha  created  the  fire,  is  the  other 
idea,  that  he — like  Matarichvan — brought  or  stole  the  fire  from 
heaven.  He  concealed  the  sparks  in  a  shrub,  that  is,  one  of  the 
sort  of  wood  that  serves  for  the  creation  of  fire. 

In  the  myth  we  thus  see  fire  represented  in  three  different 
forms:  as  fire  (fire-god),  as  fire-maker  (or  rubber,  or  fetcher) 
and  finally  as  man.  Man  in  the  myth,  is  in  so  far  also  identical 
with  fire,  as  the  first  man  sometimes  springs  from  fire,  and  be- 
cause man  conceals  within  himself  the  fire  of  life. 


Infantilism  in  Individual  and  Folk  Psychology.     Wish- 
fulfillment  IN  Dream  and  Myth 

The  short  presentation,  which  I  have  made,  is  capable  of 
giving  only  an  incomplete  idea  of  the  multiplicity  of  sources  which 
meet  in  the  Prometheus  saga.  Their  investigation  was  of  the 
greatest  scientific  significance.  They  led  to  a  break  with  the 
common  view  that  the  myth  is  a  figurative  expression  of  a  philo- 
sophical or  religious  thought.  Kuhn  sought  to  show  that  every 
myth  rests  on  a  natural  intuition.  He  pointed  out  that  every  myth 
outside  of  the  content  which  is  evident  at  once  from  the  meaning 
of  the  words,  has  still  a  latent  content,  which  is  concealed  behind 
symbolical  expressions.^^  Whoever  is  acquainted  with  Freud's 
method  of  dream  interpretation  and  the  dream-theory,  which  was 
derived  from  it,  will  observe,  that  between  Kuhn's  interpretation 
of  the  Prometheus  saga  and  Freud's  interpretation  of  dreams  far- 
reaching  analogies  exist.  When  to  two  structures  which  out- 
wardly show  such  important  differences,  as  is  the  case  with 
dreams  and  myths,  the  same  methods  of  investigation  are  appli- 
cable, one  is  able  to  see  therein  a  new  confirmation  of  the  hypoth- 
esis that  behind  outer  differences  there  lies  concealed  an  inner 
relationship.  The  example  of  the  Prometheus  saga  will  serve  to 
demonstrate  the  psychological  relationship  of  dreams  and  myths. 

The  myth  of  Prometheus,  so  far  as  it  occupies  us  here,  may 

^  Kuhn  is  not  afraid  to  speak  openly  of  the  sexual  character  of  these 
symbols.  That  such  a  doctrine  should  be  attacked  as  unscientific  and  im- 
moral we  have,  in  our  day,  sufficiently  endured.  Steinthal  undertakes,  in 
his  work  already  cited  (p.  3),  to  defend  Kuhn  on  both  sides.  I  cannot 
refrain  from  quoting  his  words  here,  because  they  appear  to  be  directed 
prophetically  against  the  opponents  of  the  Freudian  teachings.  "  When 
with  the  exactness,  and  the  conscientiousness  of  a  judge,  the  importance 
of  each  reason  is  examined  and  without  persuasion  is  presented  ungar- 
nished  and  the  conclusions  always  drawn  with  the  greatest  caution,  it 
merits  not  only  scientific  but  moral  recognition." 

32 


INFANTILISM    IN    INDIVIDUAL   AND    FOLK    PSYCHOLOGY  33 

be  told  in  a  few  words.  The  significance,  which  the  true  sense  of 
these  few  words  reveals  to  us,  takes  a  very  much  greater  space. 
Quite  similar  relations  exist  in  the  case  of  dreams.  A  short 
dream  contains  much  more  than  we  could  guess  from  the  simple 
relation.  In  the  same  way  as  Freud  has  established  in  dreams,  so 
in  myths,  there  is  found  concealed  behind  the  manifest  content 
a  latent  content.  For  the  discovery  of  the  latter  a  method  of 
interpretation  is  needed.  This  must,  the  same  as  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  dreams,  discover  the  ideas  and  feelings  of  the  whole 
material,  which  have  found  expression  in  the  myth. 

The  more  or  less  important  diflferences  of  the  latent  and  mani- 
fest dream  content  explains  why  the  dreamer  only  seldom  is  able 
to  understand  his  own  dream.  He  interprets  the  dream  to  him- 
self as  senseless,  absurd,  and  disputes  probably  the  idea  that  the 
dream  contains  any  sense  at  all ;  if  he  tries  really  to  penetrate  the 
significance  of  his  dream  he  gives  an  insufficient  explanation  be- 
cause it  only  takes  into  consideration  the  manifest  content.  It  is 
not  otherwise  with  the  folks!  They  likewise  do  not  understand 
the  latent  content  of  their  myths.  They  give  an  insufficient  ex- 
planation of  them.  An  example  will  easily  explain  this.  The 
dreams  of  the  death  of  near  relatives,  with  which  we  have  already 
occupied  ourselves,  are,  by  the  persons  in  which  they  occur,  prob- 
ably without  exception  falsely  interpreted.  Quite  similarly  the 
Greeks  mistook  the  true  meaning  of  the  Prometheus  saga.  They 
misunderstood  even  the  meaning  of  the  name  Prometheus.  We 
will  return  to  this  point. 

The  fact  that  the  myth-creating  people  suppress  their  own  men- 
tal product  as  the  dreamer  does  in  his  dream  requires  an  explana- 
tion. Freud  gives  as  the  key  to  this  riddle :  "  The  dream  is  a  frag- 
ment of  the  repressed  life  of  the  infantile  psyche."  This  assertion  is 
not  understandable  without  something  further.  Freud  comes  to  his 
view  in  the  following  way.  Our  mind  preserves  far  more  impres- 
sions than  our  memory  is  commonly  aware  of.     Especially  do  we 


34  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

"forget"  readily  such  reminiscences  as  are  associated  with  a  pain- 
ful feeling-tone.  They  are,  however,  not  absolutely  obliterated, 
but  only  the  capacity  for  voluntary  reproduction  is  withdrawn. 
We  have  already  come  to  know  this  process  of  repression  into  the 
unconscious.  Especially  do  we  tend  to  put  out  of  our  conscious- 
ness wishes  that  remain  unfulfilled  or  are  unfulfillable  on  account 
of  the  painful  feeling-tone  that  is  attached  to  them.  Dreams 
receive  a  large  and  essential  portion  of  their  material  from 
repressed  ideas;  only  a  smaller  and  less  important  part  of  the 
dream  content  is  actually  of  recent  occurrence.  The  same  thing 
holds  true  when  the  activity  of  consciousness  is  disturbed  by 
pathological  processes.  Then  also  old  reminiscences  rise  up  out 
of  the  depths  of  repression.  We  may  observe  this  especially  well 
in  hysteria  and  dementia  praecox.  The  idea  of  repression  is  indis- 
pensible  for  the  explanation  of  the  most  various  pathological 
symptoms.  The  repressed  memories  may  originate  at  any  age. 
The  results  of  careful  analysis  have  succeeded  in  showing,  how- 
ever, that  the  ultimate  basis  of  a  dream  or  of  the  symptom  of  a 
given  mental  disease,  is  a  reminiscence  of  childhood.  The  child 
fulfills  his  wishes,  the  real,  unrepressed  ones  even,  so  far  as  they 
are  not  realized,  in  day  and  dream  phantasies.  In  later  years 
these  phantasy  activities  are,  by  preference,  relegated  to  sleep. 
In  the  dream  the  adult  preserves,  not  only  the  childhood  species  of 
thinking  but  also  the  object  of  the  infantile  thoughts.  The  infan- 
tile wishes  and  events  rest  in  the  bosom  of  the  unconscious,  only 
apparently  forgotten.  They  wait  here,  in  a  way,  until  the  indi- 
vidual has  an  experience  which  is  analogous  to  an  infantile  occur- 
rence. Then  that  which  is  analogous  will  become  assimilated  to 
the  earlier  experience.  So  the  infantile  memory  experiences  a 
reinforcement  in  the  unconscious.  When  it  attains  a  certain  in- 
tensity it  expresses  itself  in  normal  individuals  in  dreams,  in 
neurotic  or  psychotic  individuals  in  the  symptoms  of  the  disease.  It 
needs  two  conditions :  a  lowering  of  conscious  activity  as  occurs  in 


INFANTILISM    IN    INDIVIDUAL   AND   FOLK    PSYCHOLOGY  35 

dreams  and  certain  pathological  states,  and  an  actual  occasion. 
In  general  one  is  not  inclined  to  concede  to  infantile  occurrences 
and  wishes  such  comprehensive  results,  as  I  do  with  Freud.     One 
will  object  that  the  infantile  interests  are  suppressed  by  others  in 
later  life.     Still  that  is,  as  will  be  shown,  only  on  apparent  coun- 
ter argument.     The  significance  of  infantile  emotions  and  remi- 
niscences for  normal  and  pathological  psychology  was  never  esti- 
mated at  its  true  value  until  the  appearance,  in   1895,  of  the 
"  Studien  iiber  Hysteric  "  by  Breuer  and  Freud.     It  remains  the 
service  of  these  two  authors  to  have  directed  attention  to  the 
significance  of  infantile  reminiscences.     Freud  still  further  elabo- 
rated these  teachings  in  the  following  years.     The  view  of  the 
significance  of  infantile  events  has,  to  be  sure,  experienced  sub- 
stantial alterations,  which,  however,  in  no  way  means  an  abandon- 
ment of   the  doctrine  of  psychic   infantilism.     That  the   early 
infantile   reminiscences   exercise   so   great   an   influence   on   the 
psychic  development  of  the  individual  we  may  perhaps  be  able 
to  explain.     If  the  child  has  many  experiences  which  are  deter- 
mined by  outside  causes,  and  so  are  not  grounded  in  his  indi- 
viduality, yet  there  are  still  others  that  proceed  directly  from  his 
own  characteristics.      In  two  small  contributions^*  I  have  attempted 
to  show  this  for  certain  sexual  happenings  in  childhood.     We  can 
formulate  the  results  in  general  as  follows:  a  part  of  the  happen- 
ings, and  probably  the  most  affective,  the  child  owes  to  his  inher- 
ent, inborn  emotivity.     In  this  way  it  comes  about  that  the  child 
in  early  youth  has  not  yet  learned  to  subordinate,   on   ethical 
grounds,  certain  wishes,  that  his  nature  is  not  yet  blunted  but  is 
alive  to  all  impressions,  that  it  therefore  reacts  with  greater  and 
less  restrained  intensity. 

The  memories  of  childhood  assimilate  later.  Namely,  the 
repressed  infantile  wishes  establish  themselves  in  the  later  life. 

"Abraham,  "  t)ber  die  Bedeutung  sexueller  Jugendtrauman  fiir  die 
Symptomatologie  der  Dementia  praecox,"  Zentralblatt  fiir  Nervenheil- 
kunde  und  Psychiatrie,  1907,  and  "  Das  Erieiden  sexueller  Traumen  als 
Form  infantiler  Sexualbetatigung." 


36  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

I  am  reminded  here  of  the  infantile  preference  of  the  son  for  the 
mother  and  his  rivalry  with  the  father  as  well  as  the  wish  asso- 
ciated with  this  feeling.  An  actual  occasion  wakes  again  this 
memory  of  childhood.  Now  it  finds  expression  in  a  dream. 
This  example  stands  for  many  that  serve  to  explain  the  sense 
which  Freud  gives  to  the  dream  as  a  fragment  of  the  repressed 
life  of  the  infantile  psyche. 

In  the  dream  the  infantile  phantasy  activity,  together  with  its 
objects,  continues  to  live.  The  analogy  of  the  myth  with  the 
dream  discloses  itself  now  at  a  stroke.  The  myth  springs  from 
a  period,  in  the  life  of  a  people,  long  gone  by,  which  we  may 
designate  as  the  childhood  of  the  race.  The  authority  for  this 
comparison  is  easy  to  show.  An  expression,  which  Freud  makes 
use  of  in  the  "  Traumdeutung  "  illustrates  this  well.  Freud  des- 
ignates the  period  of  childhood,  which  we  remember  only  indis- 
tinctly, as  the  prehistoric  time  in  the  history  of  the  individual. 
Although  our  reminiscences  of  that  time  are  very  indefinite,  still 
they  have  not  passed  by  without  leaving  impressions  behind. 
The  wishes  that  lay  in  our  heart  at  that  time  and  which  we  at 
best  remember  in  an  imperfect  way,  are  not  wholly  effaced,  but 
only  repressed  and  continue  to  live  in  our  dream  phantasies.  All 
this  takes  place  also  in  the  myths.  They  originate  in  the  prehis- 
toric times  of  the  race,  and  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  indefi- 
nite traditions.  They  contain  memory  rests  from  their  childhood. 
Can  the  wish- fulfillment  theory  of  dreams  also  be  transferred  to 
myths  ? 

I  maintain  this  and  formulate  my  view,  in  harmony  with 
Freud's  teachings  in  regard  to  dreams,  as  follows :  The  myth  is  a 
fragment  of  the  repressed  life  of  the  infantile  psyche  of  the  race. 
It  contains  (in  disguised  form)  the  wishes  of  the  childhood  of 
the  race. 

We  have  already  found  important  evidence  for  this  view  by 
comparing  certain  myths  with  "  typical "  dreams.     We  saw  that 


INFANTILISM    IN    INDIVIDUAL    AND    FOLK    PSYCHOLOGY  3/ 

in  the  CEdipus  saga,  as  in  certain  dreams,  the  infantile  sexuality 
found  expression.  From  the  sexual  transference  of  the  libido  of 
the  son  on  to  the  mother  arose  wishes  which  as  with  many  others 
availed  themselves  of  repression.  Education  is  nothing  but  a 
forced,  systematic  repression  of  inborn  tendencies. 

In  the  youth  of  a  race,  when  more  natural  relations  still  pre- 
vail, when  the  conventions  have  not  yet  assumed  rigid  forms, 
every  tendency  could  be  realized.  At  a  later  time  they  were  sup- 
pressed by  a  process  which  we  can  designate  in  the  individual  as 
repression.  But  they  do  not  die  out  wholly  but  are  retained  in 
the  myths.  This  process,  for  which  I  might  propose  the  name  of 
"  mass  repression,"  is  the  reason  the  people  no  longer  understand 
the  original  meaning  of  their  myths  quite  as  we  can  not  under- 
stand our  dreams  without  some  explanation.^^ 

It  appears  that  a  people  whose  myths  are  concerned  with  its 
earliest  childhood  express  in  them  such  wishes  as  they  have  been 
accustomed  to  repress  most  strongly.  Let  us  consider  the  biblical 
description  of  Paradise!  Freud  has  aptly  characterized  it :"  Para- 
dise is  nothing  but  the  mass  phantasy  of  the  childhood  of  the 
individuals."  Genesis  relates  of  Adam  and  Eve,  with  special 
emphasis,  that  they  were  naked  and  were  not  ashamed.  We  know 
that  the  custom  of  the  Jews  rigidly  required  the  clothing  of  the 
body.  The  infraction  of  this  custom  was  always  especially  cen- 
sured in  the  biblical  stories.  We  find  again,  in  a  typical  dream, 
a  parallel  to  the  mass  phantasy  of  the  nakedness  of  the  first  man. 
We  all  occasionally  dream  that  we  are  going  about  in  very  defi- 
cient clothing,  even  moving  about  among  people,  who,  however, 
take  no  notice  of  our  state.  The  affect  of  anxiety  which  accom- 
panies this  dream  corresponds  to  the  strong  repression  of  the  in- 
fantile wish  to  show  ourselves  naked  before  others.     Freud  has 

*  That  a  people  no  longer  understands  its  own  myths  can  not  be  due 
to  their  having  taken  them  over  partly  from  other  peoples.  They  could 
only  have  taken  them  over  because  they  found  their  own  complexes  in 
them.  These,  however,  were  just  the  ones  repressed.  Besides  each  people 
alter  myths  they  take  over ;  they  must  then  at  least  understand  the  meaning 
of  the  alteration;  this  is,  however,  not  the  case. 


38  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

brought  a  great  amount  of  evidence  to  show  that  in  this  dream 
we  are  dealing  with  an  infantile  nakedness  phantasy  ("Traum- 
deutung,"  S.  i66  f.).  He  recalls  in  this  connection,  that  children 
take  great  pleasure  in  showing  themselves  naked  before  other  chil- 
dren or  adults  or  exhibiting  before  themselves.  There  are  people, 
in  whom  these  infantile  adnexa  of  the  sex  instinct  are  retained  in 
abnormal  strength  and  the  normal  activity  is  fully  pressed  aside: 
they  are  the  exhibitionists. 

The  very  rigorous  ethics  of  the  Jews  in  regard  to  the  sexual 
relation  demanded  that  the  mass  phantasy  of  nakedness  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  earliest  childhood  of  man.  The  Greeks,  who  were 
ashamed  of  nakedness  in  a  much  narrower  sense,  did  not  need  to 
go  back  so  far.  Freud  has  shown  that  the  saga  of  Odysseus  and 
Nausicaa  deals  with  the  same  theme.  He  therefore  puts  it  par- 
allel to  the  above-mentioned  nakedness  dreams. 

The  Greek  Prometheus  saga  corresponds  to  the  biblical  story 
of  the  creation  of  the  first  man.  As  we  saw,  it  is  differentiated 
from  it  by  the  lack  of  one  of  the  analogous  ingredients  of  the 
nakedness  phantasy.  It  contains,  on  the  contrary,  the  story  of 
the  stealing  of  fire,  for  which  the  biblical  presentation  offers  no 
correlate.  We  have  now  to  discover  what  repressed  mass  phan- 
tasies or  wishes  find  expression  in  the  Greek  anthropogeny,  espe- 
cially also,  of  what  significance,  in  this  respect,  the  robbery  of 
the  fire  is.  In  order  to  attain  this  object  we  must  first  consider 
certain  general  characteristics  of  myths,  and  for  the  explanation 
of  these  turn  back  again  to  Freud's  theory  of  dreams. 

Freud  declares  every  dream  to  be  egoistic.  We  have  to  learn 
to  suppress  all  our  egoistic  tendencies.  The  majority,  on  social, 
familiar,  and  other  grounds,  we  must  by  preference  repress. 
When  now,  as  in  dreams,  the  unconscious  comes  to  expression, 
the  repressed  emotions  break  through.  Surely  they  must  care- 
fully disguise  themselves ;  for  their  frank  entrance  would  be  pre- 
vented by  the  censor.     The  egoism  of  the  dream  expresses  itself 


INFANTILISM    IN    INDIVIDUAL    AND    FOLK    PSYCHOLOGY  39 

by  the  invariable  appearance  in  the  central  point  of  the  dream  of 
the  dreamer  himself.  This  is  certainly  not  meant  in  the  sense 
that  the  dreamer  always  sees  himself  in  the  dream  as  the  center 
of  the  dream  process.  Very  often  he  follows,  so  to  speak,  the 
drama  only  as  an  onlooker.  Then,  however,  he  represents, 
through  the  actor,  the  title  role.  This  role  falls  to  a  person  who 
has  a  characteristic,  an  occurrence,  or  something  in  common  with 
the  dreamer.  The  dreamer  identifies  himself  with  the  principal 
personage  in  the  dream.  So  the  appearance  is  brought  about 
that  the  principal  personage  of  the  dream  also  occupies  the  most 
prominent  place  in  the  dream.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  identi- 
fication signifies  they  are  the  same — "just  as"  one  another 
(Freud,  "  Traumdeutung,"  S.  216).  But  "just  as"  cannot  be 
expressed  in  the  language  of  dreams ;  the  dream  can  only  express 
comparison  by  replacing  a  person  or  an  object  by  an  analogy. 
That  the  object  of  the  dream — a  wish-fulfillment — is  likewise 
throughout  egoistic,  we  have  often  established  in  the  discussions 
of  Freud's  explanations  above.  In  the  same  sense  are  those  other 
psychic  structures  egoistic  which  we  have  placed  parallel  with  the 
dream.  It  would  lead  too  far,  at  this  point,  to  show  this  for  the 
hysterical  dream-states.  The  relation  shows  clearer  in  the  chronic 
psychoses  with  delusional  formation.  The  psychosis  is  also 
throughout  egoistic.  The  patient  is,  under  all  cimcumstances,  the 
central  point  of  his  delusional  system.  He  is  exposed  to  in- 
trigues, injurious  influences,  persecutions  of  all  sorts  which  are 
put  in  operation  against  him  from  all  sides.  His  co-workers  wish 
him  out  of  the  way,  a  detective  is  watching  him.  He  is  the  one, 
single,  righteous  person  against  whom  the  world  of  unrighteous- 
ness and  jealousy  has  declared  war.  He  has  placed  himself  in 
opposition  to  the  world.  So  every  delusion  of  persecution  con- 
tains implicitly  a  delusion  of  grandeur.  Psychiatry,  in  general, 
cares  to  speak  of  delusions  of  grandeur  only  when  a  special  gran- 
diose idea  is  expressed.    We  would  do  better  to  speak  in  a  general 


40  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

sense  of  a  grandiose  complex.  When  we  listen  to  an  insane  per- 
son relate  his  delusional  system  we  are  reminded  by  its  structure 
of  the  sagas  of  mythology,  which  have  been  constructed  about 
special  figures.  The  delusional  system  of  an  insane  person  is 
like  a  myth  in  which  he  celebrates  his  own  greatness.  There  are 
insane  persons  who  assert  themselves  to  be  some  particular,  fa- 
mous, historical  person,  perhaps  Napoleon  or  Bismarck.  Such  a 
patient,  who  finds  some  analogy  between  himself  and  Napoleon, 
identifies  himself  with  Napoleon  without  further  ceremony — 
quite  as  we  are  wont  to  do  in  dreams.  The  psychoses  have  no 
expression  for  "just  as"  quite  as  the  dream.  If  we  go  a  little 
further  into  detail  we  find  a  wealth  of  proofs  for  the  correctness 
of  this  comparison.  Insane  persons,  for  example,  commonly 
refer  their  delusional  ideas,  especially  their  grandiose  ideas,  back 
to  their  childhood.  I  refer  especially  to  the  delusional  ideas  of 
birth  because  they  are  of  great  interest  for  the  further  analysis 
of  the  Prometheus  saga.  Cases  of  this  sort  are  known  to  every 
psychiatrist.  A  patient  asserts,  perhaps,  that  the  people  whose 
name  he  bears  are  not  his  true  parents ;  he  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact 
the  son  of  a  princely  person,  there  is  a  mysterious  reason  why  he 
should  be  put  aside  and  on  that  account  he  was  given  over,  when 
a  child,  to  be  cared  for  by  his  "  parents."  His  enemies  maintain 
the  fiction  that  he  is  of  low  birth  in  order  to  suppress  his  just 
claim  to  the  crown  or  great  wealth. 

This  delusion  of  birth  reminds  us  again  of  the  infantile  day 
dreams  in  which  the  boy  is  a  prince  or  king,  and  through  his 
victories  casts  the  fame  of  everybody  else  in  the  shade.  The  wish 
to  become  something  great  is  satisfied  by  the  phantasy  of  royal 
descent.  For  in  the  childish  phantasy  a  prince  is  predestined,  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  he  is  a  prince,  to  arouse  the  admiration 
of  all  the  world.  The  object  of  desire  of  the  mental  stirrings  of 
the  child  is  to  become  great — in  the  double  sense  of  the  word.  It 
appears  to  me  that  whoever,  as  adult,  always  succeeds  or  imagines 


INFANTILISM    IN   INDIVIDUAL  AND   FOLK   PSYCHOLOGY         4 1 

himself  to  succeed  has  born  a  grandiose  complex  in  his  breast 
in  his  childhood.  The  phantasies,  which  he  invented  in  his  youth 
he  forgets  later.  The  complex,  however,  in  whose  service  these 
phantasies  stand,  does  not  die  before  the  man.  If  he  sees,  in  his 
advanced  age,  his  ambitions  unfulfilled,  then,  the  mentally  sound 
as  well,  commonly  transfer  their  wish-fulfillment  back  to  child- 
hood and  become  laudator  temporis  acti. 

This  grandiose  complex  is  peculiar  to  the  childhood  of  a  race 
quite  in  the  same  way  as  to  the  childhood  of  the  individual ;  also 
in  the  "  historical "  period  of  a  race  it  does  not  vanish  without 
leaving  traces,  as  we  have  also  been  able  to  establish  for  the  indi- 
vidual. Also  in  myths  an  identification  takes  place.  The  race 
identifies  itself  with  the  principal  figure  of  the  myth.  "Just  as" 
is  also  absent  in  myths.^^ 

Every  race  has  associated  the  beginning  of  their  existence  with 
a  myth,  which  reminds  us  in  a  surprising  way  of  the  delusions  of 
descent  of  the  insane.  Every  race  will  descend  from  its  god  head, 
be  "  created "  by  him.  Creation  is  nothing  but  procreation  di- 
vested of  the  sexual.  This  appears  with  wonderful  clearness 
from  Kuhn's  interpretation  of  the  Prometheus  saga.  Prometheus 
"  creates  "  the  man ;  he  is,  however,  if  we  search  his  history,  the 
borer,  generator  and  at  the  same  time  the  fire-god.  We  learn 
from  the  Vedas  of  different  sects  of  priests  who  were  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  fire-god  Agni  and  derived  their  descent  from  fire ! 
The  names  of  these  priestly  sects  (Angirasen,  Bhrgu,  etc.)  mean 
either  fire  or  flame.  So  man  deduces  his  descent  from  the  gods, 
whom  he  himself  created,  from  fire,  that  he  gave  to  god,  from  the 
world-ash,  from  which  the  fire  came  to  him.  Askr,  the  ash,  in 
the  northern  sagas  is  the  ancestor  of  the  human  species.  So  man, 
in  the  early  times,  projected  his  grandiose  complex  into  the 
heavens.     What  unworthy  successors  are  our  insane  who  are  sat- 

*•  Steinthal  ("  Die  Saga  von  Samson,"  Zeitschrift  fiir  Volkerpsychol. 
und  Sprachwissenschaft,  Bd.  2,  1862)  declares,  that  the  word  gleichwie 
(just  as)  has  brought  about  the  greatest  revolution  in  the  mental  develop- 
ment of  mankind. 


42  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

isfied  with  descent  from  a  great  person  of  this  earth,  and  we  our- 
selves, we  do  the  same  things  in  our  childhood  phantasies ! 

The  Prometheus  saga  is  also  rich  in  examples  of  identification. 
It  is  only  necessary  to  recall  the  identification  of  borer,  lightning 
and  man.  If  man  is  generated  by  god  then  is  he,  also,  godly  or 
the  god  is  human,  Man  identifies  himself  then  with  the  god- 
head. So  it  is  in  the  older  forms  of  the  Prometheus  saga;  it  is 
only  in  later  times  that  creation  has  been  set  in  place  of  procreation. 

The  old  testament  story  of  creation  is  only  apparently  an 
exception.  In  the  story  of  Genesis  the  man  surely  does  not  de- 
scend from  his  divine  creator.  God  creates  man  after  his  image ; 
here  in  the  manifest  content  of  the  story  a  similarity  occurs  in 
place  of  an  identification.  The  descent  of  Israel  is  derived  from 
the  patriarchs.  The  researches  of  comparative  mythology  have 
disclosed,  however,  that  the  patriarchs  are  the  changed  forms  of 
a  heathen  god  world.  So  Israel  originally  derived  its  descent  by 
divine  causes.  This  view  must  adjust  itself  later  to  monotheism. 
Now  the  old  family  gods  appear  in  the  service  of  the  single  god. 
The  national  pride  must  be  satisfied  by  bringing  the  patriarch  into 
a  specially  close  relation  with  their  god.  God  appears  in  personal 
relations  with  them,  speaks  to  them  and  makes  agreements  with 
them,  which  are  binding  on  their  descendants ;  these  feel  therefore 
again  that  their  god  is  very  near. 


VI 

The  Effect  of  the  Censor  in  Dreams  and  Myths.    The 
Work  of  Condensation 

We  have  come  to  know  already  of  the  idea  of  the  censor. 
While  in  the  dream  the  practiced  repression  of  consciousness  is 
removed,  still  the  unfettered  wishes  are  prevented  from  open  ex- 
pression. The  censor  does  not  permit  the  repressed  idea  expres- 
sion by  clear,  unequivocal  words,  but  compels  it  to  appear  in  a 
strange  dress.  By  means  of  the  dream  distortion  the  true  (latent) 
dream  content  is  transposed  into  the  manifest  content.  The 
latent  dream  thoughts  already  formed  in  the  waking  state  are,  as 
Freud  has  shown,  on  the  way  to  becoming  unconscious  thought 
activities.  The  dream  makes  no  new  thoughts,  it  moulds  over 
those  formed  in  the  waking  state  according  to  the  demands  of  the 
censor.  Freud  distinguishes  four  ways  in  which  this  work  is 
accomplished.  We  have  now  to  prove  whether  similar  relations 
exist  in  myths,  whether  a  censor  works  here  also  and  whether  the 
myth  makes  use  of  the  same  means  of  presentation  for  evasion 
as  the  dream.  We  can  here  also  use  the  Prometheus  saga  as  a 
paradigm,  but  will  draw  upon  other  myths  at  certain  places  in  the 
compass  of  our  consideration. 

Of  the  various  processes  of  the  dream  work  let  us  consider 
first  "  condensation."  We  have  already  learned  to  know  it  in  the 
Prometheus  saga  but  are  then  no  nearer  its  understanding.  Its 
surprise  is,  that  the  Prometheus  saga,  which  appears  so  simple  at 
first  glance,  in  its  few  words  gives  expression  to  a  great  number 
of  ideas.  The  latter  form,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  latent 
content  of  the  myth.  One  element  of  the  manifest  dream  content 
very  commonly  contains  not  one  but  several  dream  thoughts.  The 
relation  is  quite  similar  in  myths.     If  the  few  words  of  the  saga 

43 


44  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

are  to  contain  all  these  thoughts,  as  Kuhn's  work  has  shown  us, 
each  word,  so  to  say,  must  be  "  overdetermined,"  quite  as  it  is  in 
the  dream.  Dream  interpretation  is  able  to  bring  proof  that  a 
person  appearing  in  the  dream  may  represent  several  related  reali- 
ties. For  example,  it  is  not  rare  that  a  dream  person  may  have 
the  face  of  one  person  known  to  the  dreamer  and  the  rest  of  the 
body  of  another  acquaintance.  The  dreamer  thus  brings  these 
two  persons  in  relation  to  one  another  probably  because  they 
accord  in  some  important  point.  Every  occurrence  of  the  dream 
can  likewise  be  numerously  determined.  In  dream  analysis  we 
must  therefore  always  take  note  of  ambiguity;  each  word  of  the 
dream  story  may  hold  a  double  or  more  numerous  meaning. 

The  elements  of  the  myth,  like  the  elements  of  the  dream,  are 
also  overdetermined.  The  Greek  Prometheus  saga  owes  its  form 
to  a  very  active  process  of  condensation.  The  form  of  Pro- 
metheus, as  we  have  found  by  analysis,  is  condensed  from  three 
views.  According  to  the  first  he  is  the  fire  god,  according  to  the 
second  he  is  the  fire,  according  to  the  third  he  is  man.  From 
these  ideas  the  saga  of  the  robbery  of  the  fire  was  condensed. 
SteinthaP'^  has  put  together,  with  great  pregnancy,  this  extremely 
important  conclusion  of  Kuhn's  analysis:  "After  the  fire  god  as 
man  has  come  down  from  heaven  he  brings  himself  as  m.an  or  as 
god  himself,  as  god  or  as  a  divine  element  on  the  earth,  and  be- 
stows himself  as  an  element  in  himself  as  mortal." 

To  one  who  is  accustomed  to  analyze  dreams  with  the  help  of 
Freud's  method  the  inner  relationship  of  dreams  and  myths,  on 
the  basis  of  the  common  process  of  condensation,  will  be  apparent. 
In  apparently  insignificant  details  of  the  myth  he  will  distinguish 
condensations,  quite  analogous  to  what  he  has  already  met  in 
dreams.  Kuhn's  analysis  brings  out  for  nearly  every  element  of 
the  Prometheus  saga,  for  every  single  symbol,  the  proof  of  mul- 
tiple determinations.     I  only  call  attention  to  how,  for  example, 

"  Steinthal,  "  Die  Prometheussaga  in  ihrer  urspriinglichen  Gestalt," 
Seite  9. 


EFFECT   OF   THE    CENSOR    IN    DREAMS    AND    MYTHS  45 

in  the  heavenly  bird  the  most  varied  symbolic  functions  are 
condensed. 

The  strange  neologisms  of  the  dream  have  to  tnank  the  work 
of  condensation  for  their  occurrence.  Freud  gives  ("Traum- 
deutung,"  S.  202  f.,  as  well  as  in  other  places)  interesting  exam- 
ples of  this  kind  as  well  as  their  interpretation.  The  insane 
furnish  examples  of  neologisms  of  a  quite  similar  kind.^^  The 
normal  man  also  does  the  same  thing  while  awake  when  he  "  mis- 
speaks." Examples  of  this  can  be  found  especially  in  Freud's 
"  Psychopathologie  des  Alltagslebens."  I  will  quote  only  an  ex- 
ample from  those  that  can  be  found  there.'® 

"  A  young  man  said  to  his  sister :  '  I  have  quite  fallen  out  with 
D.,  I  do  not  greet  her  any  more.'  She  answered :  *  Altogether  a 
fine  (Lippschaft).'  She  intended  to  say  relative  (Sippschaft) 
but  she  crowded  together  two  different  things  in  this  error  of 
speech,  that  her  brother  had  begun  a  flirtation  with  the  daughter 
of  this  family,  and  this  called  up  that  she  had  recently  been  en- 
gaged in  a  serious,  illicit  love  affair  (Liebschaft)." 

The  same  word  condensations  that  we  meet  with  in  the  normal 

individual's  mistakes,  in  dreams,  and  also  in  the  neologisms  of 

the  insane  is  offered  us  in  the  Prometheus   saga.     Pramantha 

(=  Prometheus)  produces  by  rubbing  (Reiben)  fire  and  .  .  .  man; 

according  to  another  idea  he  steals  (raubt)  the  fire,  in  order  to 

bring  it  to  man.     These  two  views  are  condensed  in  the  name 

Pramantha.     Pramantha  signifies  the  "bringer  forth"  (Hervor- 

reibende),  that  is,  producing  by  rubbing  (Reiben),  and  at  the 

same  time  the  (fire)  robber  (Raubende).     This  condensation  was 

made  possible  through  the  similarity  in  sound  of  the  substantive 

matha  (=the  male  genitals,  compare  the  Latin  mentula)  and  the 

verbal  root  math  (=take,  rob).     There  is  still  the  double  sense 

of  Reiben  (to  rub)  to  be  noted. 

^Jung,  "Psychologic  der  Dementia  praecox,"  Halle.  1907. 
**  Zweite  Auflage,  1907,  Seite  30  f . 


VII 

Displacement  and  Secondary  Elaboration  in  Dreams  and 

Myths 

Condensation  explains,  in  the  myth  as  in  the  dream,  a  great 
number  of  differences  between  the  latent  and  manifest  content. 
A  second  method,  through  which  the  unconscious  leads  to  dream 
distortion,  is  called  by  Freud  "displacement."  This  element  of 
the  dream  work  also  finds  its  analogy  in  myths.  From  grounds, 
which  will  soon  be  evident,  I  will  consider  with  displacement  a 
third  element  of  the  dream  work,  "  secondary  elaboration." 

When  we  began  our  consideration  of  the  analogies  of  dreams 
and  myths  it  was  incumbent  upon  us  to  first  show  the  authority 
for  such  a  procedure.  We  could  easily  dispose  of  two  objections 
while  a  third  we  left  preliminarily  unsettled.  To  it  we  must  now 
turn  back.  The  myth,  one  may  object,  according  to  the  results 
of  recent  investigations,  has  gone  through  significant  changes, 
before  it  took  the  form,  in  which  it  has  come  to  us,  while  the 
dream  appears  to  be  a  very  fugitive  structure  born  only  for  the 
moment.  That  is  only  apparently  so.  The  dream  content  is,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  likewise  a  long  time  in  preparation.  If  we  com- 
pare the  life  period  of  man  with  that  of  the  race  we  find  that 
dreams  and  myths  have  their  roots  in  the  prehistoric  time.  We 
saw  that  the  elements  of  the  dream  were  already  formed  in  the 
waking  state.  Now  let  us  add :  The  development  of  the  dream  is 
not  closed  with  the  awaking  of  the  dreamer.  The  concurrence 
of  the  ideas  and  wishes  of  the  dream  with  the  censor  continues. 
If  we  seek  to  call  a  dream  back  to  memory,  especially  when  we 
are  telling  it  to  another  person,  the  censor  undertakes  additional 
changes,  in  order  to  make  the  dream  distortion  more  complete. 

46 


DISPLACEMENT   AND   SECONDARY    ELABORATION  47 

This  is  what  Freud  calls  "  secondary  elaboration."^"  It  is  only 
a  continuation  of  the  work  of  displacement  of  the  dream.  Both 
processes  are  of  the  same  nature  and  serve  the  same  purpose. 
They  displace  content  and  affect  of  the  dream.  Those  elements 
which  possess  prime  significance  in  the  dream  thoughts  play  a 
more  secondary  role  in  the  dream,  while  some  unimportant  inci- 
dent is  treated  with  exaggerated  importance.  Thus  there  comes 
about,  as  Freud  expresses  it,  a  "  transvaluation  of  all  values  "  in 
the  dream.  The  insignificant  becomes  instead  the  significant 
pushed  into  the  focal  point  of  interest,  and  the  affect-tone  bound 
up  with  the  dream  thoughts  is  displaced  from  the  significant  to 
the  insignificant.  Both  repeat  themselves  once  again  in  secondary 
elaboration.  It  is  exactly  the  critical  places  of  the  dream  that 
most  quickly  and  definitely  relapse  into  repression  after  waking, 
whereby  their  reproduction  is  rendered  difficult.  The  affect  also 
suffers  once  again  thereby  the  former  similar  modification. 

When  a  complex  of  strong  emotional  value  lays  at  the  bottom 
of  a  dream,  that  complex — in  the  same  or  in  a  subsequent  night 
— produces  further  dreams.  These  further  dreams  tend  towards 
the  same  wish  fulfillment  as  the  first,  they  only  draw  within  their 
reach  new  means  of  expression,  other  symbols,  and  new  associa- 
tions. A  strong  complex  may  express  itself  for  years  in  the  form 
of  a  recurring  dream.  In  this  respect  it  is  only  necessary  to 
remember  the  previously  detailed  treatment  of  the  typical  dreams, 
for  example  the  typical  infantile  nakedness  dream.  Again  the 
typical  dream  is  the  means  of  transition  from  the  consideration 
of  dreams  to  that  of  myths.  Mutatis  mutandis  we  recognize  the 
same  psychological  process  in  that  the  same  dream  accompanies 
an  individual  through  the  different  periods  of  his  life  and  be- 
comes thereby  gradually  changed  by  the  taking  up  of  new  ele- 

**!  note  here  only  those  expressions  of  secondary  elaboration,  which 
appear  on  trying  to  reproduce  the  dream;  these  are  of  special  significance 
for  comparison  with  myths.  As  to  the  other  results  of  secondary  elabora- 
tion, which  already  during  the  dream  influence  its  form,  I  will  not  dis- 
cuss them. 


48  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

ments,  and  that  a  myth  suffers  gradual  modifications  in  the  dif- 
ferent life  periods  of  a  race. 

Now  the  period  of  time  in  which  a  myth  develops  is  naturally 
infinitely  greater  than  for  a  dream.  Further  we  can  obtain, 
from  a  person  whose  dream  we  are  interpreting,  information 
about  doubtful  points.  To  analyze  a  myth,  on  the  contrary,  is 
extraordinarily  difficult,  because  we  are  required  to  penetrate 
a  psychological  structure  by  comparison  and  combination,  that 
originated  thousands  of  years  before.  After  so  long  a  period  of 
time  it  is  only  in  a  few  especially  favorable  cases  that  it  is  pos- 
sible to  ascertain,  what  share  in  the  displacement  work  was  due 
to  the  time  in  which  the  myth  was  fixed,  and  what  to  later  times, 
in  which  it  was  passed  by  word  of  mouth  from  generation  to 
generation.  New  generations  had  new  views.  So  where  a  trans- 
mittal did  not  correspond  to  its  views,  that  generation  undertook 
a  "  secondary  elaboration  "  of  the  myth.  We  should  also  not  for- 
get what  a  wide  reaching  influence  the  myths  of  neighboring  peo- 
ple have  on  the  transmittal  of  racial  myths.  For  all  these  reasons 
it  would  call  for  doing  violence  to  the  facts  if  we  undertook,  in 
myths,  an  artificial  separation  of  diplacement  and  secondary 
elaboration.  I  leave  it  at  times  uncertain,  when  I  speak  here- 
after of  the  work  of  displacement  in  myths,  whether  I  am  deal- 
ing with  a  primary  or  a  secondary  displacement. 


VIII 

The  Effect  of  Displacement  in  the  Sagas  of  Prometheus, 
Moses,  and  Samson 

We  have  already  repeatedly  met  with  the  effects  of  displace- 
ment in  myths  without  having  especially  devoted  our  attention 
to  it.  The  Greek  Prometheus  saga  bears  clear  traces  of  the 
work  of  displacement.  As  we  have  learned  from  Kuhn's  re- 
searches, this  myth  reaches  back  to  a  time  in  which  the  natural 
forces  were  not  yet  worshiped  in  the  form  of  man-like  gods. 
Agni  and  Matharichvan  came  into  existence  with  the  gradual  per- 
sonification of  the  gods.  The  former  was  the  fire  god ;  the  latter 
the  fire-boring-out  god,  who  brought  Agni  back  when  he  had 
hidden  himself.  The  two  figures  are  not  separated  originally; 
Matharichvan  appears  rather  as  another  name  for  Agni  and  sepa- 
rates itself  later  from  him  as  an  independent  being. 

Matharichvan,  to  whom  the  Greek  Prometheus  corresponds, 
was  then  properly  the  fire-bringer.  In  the  Greek  myth  he  became 
the  fire-robber.  He  took  the  fire  from  heaven  to  man  against 
the  will  of  the  gods  and  suffered  punishment  for  doing  it.  Pro- 
metheus must  thus  be  subordinated  to  the  will  of  Zeus ;  therein 
lies  the  most  important  displacement  of  the  saga.  The  original 
myth,  according  to  which  Matharichvan — Prometheus — brought 
Agni  back,  lacks  the  affect  tone  in  the  way  of  censure  for  this 
undertaking.  The  Greek  version  of  the  myth  employs  here  an 
affect  displacement.  Prometheus,  who  sinned  against  the  gods, 
becomes  thus  the  representation  of  man  who  often  enough  has 
rebelled  against  the  council  of  the  gods.  Through  this  trans- 
formation of  the  saga  the  original  sense  of  the  name  Prometheus 
— Pramantha — was  lost.  The  ancient,  naive  times  had  called 
him   the  generator,   the   borer.     This  view   disappeared  by   re- 

49 


50  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

pression  until  the  people  had  fully  forgotten  the  meaning  of  the 
names.  The  meaning  was  still  further  modified  and  now  he  is 
interpreted  as  "  forethought."  Had  he  not  brought  his  creatures 
fire  and  so  honestly  won  such  a  name!  The  transformation  of 
the  name  Pramantha  into  Prometheus  and  the  associated  change 
of  meaning  offers  us  a  very  instructive  example  of  displacement. 
The  process  of  displacement  in  the  Prometheus  saga  gains 
considerable  in  interest  if  we  turn  our  attention  to  that  portion 
of  Kuhn's  works  not  hitherto  considered.  Kuhn  treats  along- 
side of  the  myth  of  the  origin  of  fire  the  one  closely  related  to  it 
of  the  origin  of  the  nectar.  I  cannot  go  into  the  common  origin 
of  these  myths  here  without  departing  too  much  from  the  theme. 
I  will  be  satisfied  therefore  with  one  reference,  that  among  other 
things  has  given  occasion  for  the  common  origin  of  lightning 
and  rain  from  the  storm  clouds,  and  reduced  fire  and  nectar  in  the 
myth  to  a  common  origin.  Our  interest  here  is  mostly  a  result  of 
comparative  mythology:  That  the  Greek  (and  Indo-germanic) 
saga  of  Prometheus  corresponds  to  the  Moses  of  the  Bible.  If 
we  compare  the  law-bringer  Moses  with  the  fire-bringer  Pro- 
metheus on  the  basis  of  the  Old  Testament  accounts  and  the 
presentation  of  yEschylus  the  two  figures  certainly  appear  to  have 
very  little  in  common.  The  story  of  Moses  carries,  however,  as 
well  as  that  of  Prometheus,  the  traces  of  a  considerable  displace- 
ment. We  must  probably  differentiate  the  old  mythical  Moses 
from  the  biblical.  The  biblical  Moses  ascends,  like  Prometheus, 
to  heaven  and  brings  the  laws  down —  as  he  did  the  fire.  Amidst 
thunder  and  lightning  he  ascends ;  here  the  storm  returns.  It  is 
probably  also  not  an  accident  that  the  law  was  called  "fiery." 
In  general  we  see  Moses  as  the  true  servant  of  this  one  God; 
while  Prometheus  comes  in  conflict  with  the  gods  through  the 
robbery  of  the  fire,  Moses  receives  the  law  from  the  hand  of  God 
so  that  here  a  conflict  is  excluded.  The  rebellion  of  Moses 
against  God  is  found  in  another  place.    The  figure  in  the  heathen 


EFFECT   OF   DISPLACEMENT    IN    SAGAS  5  I 

myths  corresponding  to  Moses  brings  forth  water  from  the 
clouds  by  means  of  Hghtning.  Moses  is  identified  with  the 
analogue  of  the  lightning  or  the  borer  of  the  heathen  myth :  with 
the  rod,  this  always  recurring  symbol  in  numerous  sagas.  With 
this  rod  he  struck  water  from  the  rock  in  the  wilderness — 
against  the  command  of  the  Lord  (IV  Mos.,  Kap.  20). 
Moses  was  punished  for  disobedience:  He  was  not  allowed  to 
enter  the  promised  land.  Moses,  therefore,  did  not  steal  the 
water,  but  he  struck  on  the  rock  and  called  it  forth.  Accord- 
ing to  the  command  of  God  he  should  have  spoken  to  the  rock; 
impatience  rent  him  to  strike  the  rock.  The  displacement  is 
here  extremely  far  reaching:  It  is  not  enough  that  Moses  was 
a  simple  man,  a  servant  of  God — he  did  not  even  once  commit 
a  robbery,  like  Prometheus,  but  called  forth  the  promised  water 
in  an  over-hasty  manner.  And  so  Moses's  guilt  is  displaced  to  a 
relatively  insignificant  sin.  At  the  same  time  God's  power  is 
exalted  in  that  he  will  not  allow  even  a  relatively  insignificant  sin 
to  go  unpunished. 

Here  then  is  opened  to  us  an  interesting  perspective  on  the 
origin  of  certain  pathological  ideas.  We  find  a  quite  similar 
process  of  displacement,  called  by  Freud  "  transposition,"  in  the 
genesis  of  compulsive  ideas.  According  to  Freud's  investigations 
compulsive  ideas  have  their  root  in  self  reproaches  of  the  patient, 
which  relate  to  forbidden  sexual  activity.  The  patient  tries  to 
compensate  by  over-correction  in  other  territories  for  what  he, 
according  to  his  view,  has  done  that  was  sexually  sinful,  as  if  he 
had,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  this  indifferent  territory,  permitted 
himself  to  be  at  fault.^^ 

I  must  refer  briefly  to  a  nearly  related  process  in  the  psychoses 
(dementia  praecox,  melancholia).^^  The  delusions  of  sin  of  these 
patients  can  often  be  traced  to  self-reproaches  of  a  sexual  nature. 

*"  I  cannot,  in  this  place,  go  into  Freud's  teachings  on  this  point  and 
refer  to  the  "  Sammlung  kleiner  Schriften  zur  Neurosenlehre." 
"  Abraham,  "  Das  Erleiden  sexueller  Traumen,"  etc.,  1907. 


52  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

Such  patients  sometimes  displace  the  feeling  of  guilt  from  some 
sexual  reminiscence  onto  any  insignificant  fault  of  another  kind. 
They  are  by  no  means  to  be  dissuaded  from  these  ideas.  If  we 
turn  to  the  Freudian  view  of  these  conditions  the  ground  for  the 
conduct  of  such  patients  is  evident.  They  desire  to  put  aside  the 
feeling  of  guilt. 

Displacements,  as  shown  in  the  story  of  Moses,  we  meet  in 
the  Old  Testament  in  great  number.  We  find  even  there  many 
original  heathen  myths,  which,  as  the  race  went  more  and  more 
over  to  monotheism,  were  used  for  the  service  of  the  new  religion 
and  for  this  purpose  had  to  suffer  substantial  displacement.  That 
the  transition  to  monotheism  was  effected  only  very  gradually  and 
by  great  struggles  is  testified  to  by  all  the  historical  books  of  the 
Old  Testament.  The  gods  or  god-like  beings  of  the  old  myths 
must  come  down  from  their  high  pedestal,  must  be  satisfied  with 
the  role  of  men,  and  subordinate  themselves  to  the  one  god. 
In  some  cases  this  displacement  went  so  far,  that  the  one-time 
god  became  as  man  a  specially  faithful  follower,  the  chosen  of 
the  one  god.  The  figures  of  the  patriarchs  and  of  Moses  are 
products  of  this  displacement  process.  For  the  study  of  the 
latter  the  saga  of  Samson  lends  itself  especially  well.  We  pos- 
sess a  treatise  on  this  subject  from  the  master  hand  of  H.  Stein- 
thal.^^  I  give  here  only  some  of  its  principal  features  because  it 
leads  to  similar  results  as  the  analysis  of  the  Prometheus  saga. 

Samson,  as  can  be  seen  from  the  etymology  of  his  name,  is  the 
sun  god  of  the  old  Semitic  heathendom  and  corresponds  to  Her- 
cules of  the  Indo-germanic  saga.  He  is  also  really  the  sun  god 
or  -heros ;  the  Hercules  saga  resembles  that  of  Samson  in  a 
number  of  important  things.  Samson  is  the  sun  god,  with  long 
hair  like  Apollo.  He  is  the  warming,  generating  god,  the  bless- 
ing giving  sun;  in  the  summer  he  reaches  the  height  of  his  power. 
So  winter  and  night  are  naturally  his  adversaries ;  they  find  their 

'*  Steinthal,  "  Die  Sage  von  Samson,"  Zeiischr.  fiir  Volkerpsychol.  und 
Sprachwiss.,  Bd.  2,  1862. 


EFFECT   OF   DISPLACEMENT    IN    SAGAS  53 

personification  in  the  moon  goddess.  When  in  the  evening  the 
sun  sets,  then  according  to  one  of  the  ideas  of  the  sun  god  held 
by  many  peoples,  he  flees  before  the  pursuing  moon  goddess. 
Although  he  reaches  his  greatest  strength  in  summer,  he  cannot 
enjoy  it ;  for  from  the  solstice  he  loses  it  again.  He  is  subdued 
by  the  night  and  the  winter  goddess  as  a  strong  man  is  by  a  wife. 
Samson,  the  generating  sun  god,  appears  in  the  representation  of 
the  Book  of  Judges,  weak  as  compared  to  his  wife.  It  is  very 
probable  that  Delilah  is  a  transformation  ot  the  night  and  winter 
goddess.  Samson  loses  his  strength  when  he  loses  his  hair;  that 
is  the  sun  god  loses  his  rays.  However,  as  the  sun,  after  the  ex- 
piration of  winter  gets  back  its  strength,  so  the  hair  of  Samson 
grows  again,  so  that  his  strength  again  returns;  only  for  a  short 
time  to  be  sure.  For  he  sought  death  and  found  it  at  the  feast 
that  his  enemies,  the  Philistines,  celebrated  in  honor  of  their  god, 
Dagon.  Dagon,  however,  is  the  unfruitful  god  of  the  seas  and 
the  deserts,  in  the  myth  opposed  to  the  sun  god  and  therefore  an 
unfriendly  power. 

Samson,  the  hero  and  the  sun  god,  kills  himself.  That  is  a 
feature,  which  we  also  find  again  in  the  related  myths.  In  the 
biblical  story  the  suicide  of  Samson  besides  occurring  at  the 
feast  of  Dagon  occurs  still  a  second  time,  certainly  in  a  hardly 
recognizable  form.  The  sun  god  unites  within  himself  two  op- 
posed tendencies.  He  is,  on  the  one  side,  the  warming,  life  pro- 
moting god,  on  the  other  side,  the  burning,  unhappiness  causing, 
consuming  god.  As  the  latter  he  is  represented  by  the  symbol 
of  the  lion;  as  a  lion  the  sun  reaches  in  summer  its  greatest 
strength.  As  Agni  and  Matarichvan  originally  were  a  single 
being,  but  later  became  forces  opposed  to  one  another,  so  also 
the  consuming  heat  of  the  sun — under  the  symbol  of  the  lion — 
comes  to  be  split  ofif  from  the  blessing  bringing  sun  god.  Sam- 
son's first  heroic  deed,  Hercules'  first  task,  was  the  vanquishing 
of  a  lion.  The  good  sun  god  killed  the  consuming  god  as  a 
lion  and  therefore  killed  himself. 


54  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

An  exceedingly  distorting  displacement  has  produced  from 
the  sun  god  the  hero  Samson  consecrated  by  God.  Only  a  few, 
of  themselves  alone  not  understandable  remains  of  his  original 
being  still  adhere  to  him :  the  strength,  which  reposes  in  the  hair, 
the  weakness  as  against  the  woman,  the  end  by  suicide.  It  was 
because  of  the  long  hair  that  Samson  became,  in  the  later  saga, 
the  Nazarite,  the  beloved  of  God,  who  freed  his  people  from 
bondage.  Here  is  probably  the  identity  of  Samson  and  Hercules 
with  the  Phonecian  Meleager,  who  was  a  tutelar  god  of  his  people. 
How  the  sun  god  of  the  heathen  times  comes  to  be  the  god-or- 
dained hero  is  not  cleared  up  in  all  its  details ;  that,  however,  such 
a  transformation  did  take  place,  many  sources  of  information 
demonstrate.  Israel  had  fought  with  the  Philistines  for  cen- 
turies and  lost  her  freedom  through  these  conflicts.  The  old 
sun  god,  who  formerly  as  the  god  of  fruitfulness,  and  as  an 
enemy  of  consuming  heat,  represented  a  wish  of  the  race  as  ful- 
filled, must  now  as  a  national  hero  bring  another  wish  to  fulfill- 
ment Like  Moses  he  came  to  the  service  of  the  one  God  and 
was  chosen  by  God  to  serve  his  people.  He  does  not  appear  as 
a  leader  but  always  alone  as  the  sun  wanders  alone  in  the  heavens. 
He  alone  fought  the  Philistines  with  the  jaw  bone  of  an  ass- 
even  when  blinded  he  opposes  himself  to  thousands  of  Philistines 
and  takes  them  with  him  in  death. 


IX 

The  Means  of  Representation  of  the  Myth 

After  we  have  found  again,  in  myths,  the  work  of  condensa- 
tion and  displacement  of  dreams,  there  remains  still  another 
aspect  of  the  dream  work  in  which  to  seek  for  its  analogy  in 
myths.  Not  all  ideas  are,  for  the  dream,  immediately  represent- 
able;  the  same  is  true  for  the  myth.  Surely  there  exists  a  differ- 
ence: the  dream  dramatizes,  while  the  myth  bears  the  form  of  an 
epic.  Notwithstanding,  both  are  obliged  to  have  the  same  re- 
gard for  the  technical  representability  of  their  material.  The 
dream,  for  example,  must  find  a  figurative  representation  for  the 
abstract.  With  this  object  turns  of  speech  will,  with  preference, 
be  taken  literally.  In  one  of  the  dreams  reported  by  Freud,  the 
dreamer,  for  example,  wishes  to  express  that  a  musician  with 
whom  she  was  in  love  towered  (turmhoch)  above  all  the  others. 
In  the  dream  she  saw  him  in  the  concert  hall  standing  on  a 
tower  (Turme)  and  directing  from  that  point.  The  logical  re- 
lations of  our  speech  are  also  not  representable  as  such,  in  the 
dream.  We  have  already  learned  how  the  dream  represents  the 
very  important  relation  "just  as"  by  means  of  identification,  and 
that  in  myths  the  same  procedure  is  traceable.  Another  such 
relation :  "  either — or  "  is  expressed  in  various  ways  in  the  dream. 
One  method  is,  for  example,  the  arranging  in  a  row,  of  the  differ- 
ent possibilities,  that  is,  each  is  figuratively  represented  and  then, 
according  to  choice,  placed  beside  the  other.  One  other  way  I 
will  briefly  call  attention  to.  The  dreamer  expresses  in  different 
dreams  the  different  possibilities  characterized  by  either — or. 
The  dreams  of  one  night  serve,  according  to  experience,  the  same 
wish-fulfillment;  according  to  my  own  experience  it  appears  to 
me  that  a  series  of  dreams  in  the  same  night  not  seldom  oppose 

55 


56  DREAMS    AND   MYTHS 

to  one  another  the  different  possibiHties  of  wish-fulfillment  and 
so  correspond  with  an  either — or.  In  one  case  this  explanation 
was  especially  clear.  A  woman,  who  a  short  time  before  her 
marriage,  was  in  fear  of  opposition  from  different  quarters,  re- 
lated to  me  five  dreams  which  all  occurred  the  same  night.  I 
was  able,  by  virtue  of  an  exact  knowledge  of  her  life,  to  establish, 
that  in  the  five  dreams  all  the  different  future  possibilities  were 
realized.  The  dreamer,  in  each  dream  concealed  her  betrothed 
behind  another  person  of  her  acquaintance  who  in  one  of  the 
dreams  was  in  a  corresponding  position.  The  rich  utilization  of 
infantile  material  was  very  interesting.  Quite  in  the  same  way 
races  proceed  with  their  myths.  Races  also  represent  the  same 
wish  in  different  myths.  We  learn  here  one  of  the  causes  for  the 
relationship  in  the  contents  of  many  myths.  If  a  wish  is  espe- 
cially strong  it  finds  expression  in  different  myths.  Each  single 
representation  takes  a  new  position  in  reference  to  it,  approaches 
it  from  a  different  side.  One  need  only  refer  to  the  two  accounts 
of  creation  that  run  side  by  side  in  the  Bible. 

A  close  relationship  between  two  elements  of  the  dream  is 
commonly  expressed  by  both  elements  (or  their  symbols)  being 
placed  close  together  in  the  manifest  content.  We  see  the  same 
thing  in  myths.  In  the  Prometheus  saga  we  find  the  borer  always 
near  by  the  disc  or  the  wheel ;  in  Genesis  we  find  the  serpent  and 
the  apple  quite  as  near  one  another.  The  Prometheus  saga  shows 
us  further,  very  beautifully,  how  one  person  can  be  concealed  in 
several  symbols:  Prometheus  is  borer  and  lightning.  An  ex- 
tremely interesting  example  of  this  kind  we  have  met  in  the  Sam- 
son saga.  The  suicide  of  the  sun-god  Samson  is  represented  by 
Samson  as  sun-hero  killing  the  sun-lion. 

The  greatest  claim  is  made  on  the  technic  of  presentation  by 
the  avoidance  of  the  censor.  We  have  already  spoken  of  the  sym- 
bolic clothing.  In  the  saga  of  the  descent  of  the  fire  we  find 
symbolic  presentations  especially  for  the  male  organ  of  generation 


THE    MEANS   OF   REPRESENTATION    OF   THE    MYTH  57 

and  for  the  function  of  generation.  We  are  reminded  by  it  of 
dream  symbolism.  The  borer,  rod,  or  similar  instrument  is  a  com- 
mon symbol  in  dreams  as  the  representative  of  the  male  sexual 
organs.  The  dreams  of  women,  in  which  they  are  stabbed  by  a 
man,  are  plainly  wish  fulfilling.  In  other  dreams  a  sword,  or  a 
tree,  or  other  plant  of  appropriate  form,  appears  as  a  symbol  of 
the  male. 

The  feminine  correlate  is  also  formed  in  the  saga.  It  is  the 
sun's  disc  or  its  rim,  or  the  cloud  in  the  hollow  of  which  moves 
Pramantha,  or  the  thunder-bolt  stirred  up  by  the  lightning;  it  is 
also  obviously  the  cave  in  which  Agni  has  hidden. 

Fire  appears  in  three  forms  in  the  Prometheus  saga :  as  heav- 
enly fire,  as  earthly  fire,  and  as  the  fire  of  life.  In  the  dream 
fire  very  often  signifies  the  sexual  fire,  love.  As  Prometheus  is 
the  generating  god  so  probably  the  love  fire  may  come  to  be  con- 
sidered as  a  fourth  component. 


X 

Wish-Fulfillment  in  the  Prometheus  Saga 

After  having  convinced  ourselves  that  the  dream  censor  and 
the  dream  work  find  their  complete  analogy  in  myths,  let  us  turn 
back  to  the  question  of  wish-fulfilling  in  the  Prometheus  saga. 
It  is  of  importance  to  discover  what  is  hidden  behind  the  symbolic 
clothing.  It  will  appear  that  on  this  track  of  our  inquiry  we  can 
not  do  without  the  direction  of  Freud's  procedure  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  dreams. 

The  Greeks  themselves  made  an  experiment  in  this  direction. 
The  content  of  the  saga  had  become  for  them  unintelligible;  the 
name  of  the  hero  easily  permitted  a  little  variation  so  that  one 
could  understand  something  by  it.  So  Pramantha  became  "  Fore- 
thought." Such  a  semi-divine  figure  one  could — if  the  expres- 
sion be  permissible — use  very  well.  Its  existence  sets  forth  an 
actual  wish  of  mankind  through  all  time:  a  wish  for  a  care-tak- 
ing being.  In  the  explanation  of  the  name  "  Forethought "  there 
lies,  without  doubt,  the  expression  of  a  wish.  We  know,  how- 
ever, that  this  meaning  of  the  myth  is  secondary,  and  that  the 
symbolism  of  the  Prometheus  saga  does  not  at  all  fit  it.  We  are 
reminded  of  quite  analogous  relations  in  dream  psychology.  Not 
seldom,  quite  on  the  surface  of  a  dream,  a  wish  is  distinguish- 
able at  first  glance.  The  dreamer,  in  such  cases,  is  ready  to 
acknowledge  this  wish  as  a  fact.  It  is  always  a  wholly  unsophis- 
ticated wish !  One  asks  himself  then,  what  object,  in  such  a  case, 
the  dream  work  accomplishes,  when  the  wish,  for  the  veiling  of 
which  the  dream  work  should  serve,  lies  open  as  day.  If  we 
now  apply  an  exact  analysis  to  the  dream,  it  will  be  noted,  that 
behind  the  actual  wish  a  repressed  wish  is  hidden,  which  shows 
an  analogy  with  it.     The  actual  wish  constructs,  in  a  manner,  the 

58 


WISH-FULFILLMENT   IN    THE    PROMETHEUS    SAGA  59 

outer  layer  of  the  dream ;  under  this  lies  a  repressed  wish.  With 
this,  however,  the  work  of  interpretation  is  not  concluded.  In 
many  cases  there  is  certainly  a  third  layer.  This  deepest  layer  in 
the  dream  (as  in  the  psychoses)  is  always  constructed  from  the 
reminiscences  of  infantile  wishes. 

Such  a  stratification  one  can  establish  in  the  Prometheus  saga. 
We  know  from  Kuhn's  investigations. that  the  oldest  layer  of  the 
myth  represents  an  identification  of  man  with  fire,  the  origin  of 
man  with  the  origin  of  fire.  The  second  layer  corresponds  to  a 
later  view  into  which  entered  personal  gods.  In  this  layer  of  the 
myth  the  fire-god  is  at  the  same  time  man-god,  by  whom  the  man 
is  begotten.  In  the  third,  the  latest  layer  Pramantha  is  no  longer 
the  procreator  but  the  creator  of  man  and  his  "  forethought." 

The  wish  phantasy  contained  in  the  last  layer,  which  is  quite 
clear,  we  have  already  considered.  After  the  analogy  of  dreams 
we  may  expect  that  the  two  older  layers  also  embody  a  wish. 
The  wish  of  the  second  layer  we  know  already.  Man  derives  his 
origin  from  a  divine  being  and  consequently  is  himself  divine. 
He  identifies  himself  with  Pramantha.  We  can  show  that  a  sim- 
ilar tendency  expresses  itself  therein  as  in  the  childhood  phan- 
tasies of  the  individual,  which  we  derived  from  the  existence  of 
a  grandiose  complex.  To  be  more  precise,  the  wish  of  the  sec- 
ond layer  would  be:  We  would  like  to  originate  from  a  divine 
being  and  be  ourselves  divine ;  each  of  us  is  a  Pramantha.  I 
show  from  this  that  this  phantasy  has  an  evident  sexual  com- 
ponent. If  the  sexual,  in  the  second  layer,  constructs  a  relatively 
subordinate  component,  we  however  find  in  the  deepest  layer  a 
clearly  sexual  content,  a  plain  wish-fulfilling  in  the  sexual  sphere. 
The  second  layer  is  differentiated  from  the  oldest  by  a  far  ad- 
vanced sexual  repression. 

The  symbolism  of  the  deepest  layer  is  evidently  sexual;  it 
gives  expression  to  a  grandiose  complex.  Man  identifies  his  gen- 
erative power  with  the  ability  of  the  borer  to  produce  fire  in  the 


6o  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

wooden  disc,  with  the  effects  of  the  borer  of  heaven — the  light- 
ning. The  oldest  form  of  the  Prometheus  saga  is  an  apotheosis 
of  the  human  power  of  generation. 

We  have  taken  the  pains  to  show  that  the  sexuality  forms  the 
most  inner  nucleus  of  the  being  of  man.  It  is  an  old  and  widely 
diffused  error  that  in  respect  to  sex  the  child  is  wholly  indifferent. 
I  am  not  thinking  here,  naturally  of  cases  of  abnormally  early 
sexual  maturity.  Especially  through  Freud's^*  researches  we 
are  forced  to  conclude  that  there  is  a  sexual  activation  already 
in  early  childhood,  which  surely  is  not  consciously  that  to  the 
child  and  which  must  be  differentiated  from  the  sexual  activity 
of  the  mature,  healthy  individual.  The  desire  is  awakened  very 
early  in  children  to  exhibit  themselves,  with  which  is  bound  up 
the  curiosity  in  reference  to  the  sex  differences  and  procreation. 
Every  child — some  earlier,  some  later — asks:  Where  did  I  come 
from?  What  the  child  learns  in  this  consideration  is  food  for 
his  phantasy.  The  interest  in  the  sexual  processes  produces  in 
the  growing  child  a  fixation  of  attention  like  nothing  else.  An 
unexpectedly  received  explanation  has  not  infrequently  resulted 
in  violent  emotional  disturbances.  So  the  first  physiological  signs 
of  sexual  maturity,  which  the  child  notices  itself,  not  rarely  calls 
forth  anxiety  and  aversion. 

We  have  already  repeatedly  seen  pathological  phantasy  for- 
mations grow  out  of  infantile  phantasies.  We  also  found  charac- 
teristic analogies  between  these  pathological  products  and  myths. 
The  phantasies  growing  out  of  the  childhood  desire  to  show 
oneself  and  curiosity  the  physician  meets  quite  commonly,  if  he 
penetrates  the  psychic  life  of  neurotic  and  psychopathic  persons 
by  means  of  the  psychoanalytic  process.  I  refer,  in  this  consider- 
ation, especially  to  Freud's^°  analysis  of  a  case  of  paranoid  psy- 
chosis. Sexual  curiosity  is  of  extraordinary  significance  in  the 
realm  of  the  psychic  phenomena  of  compulsion;  this  is  especially 

**  "  Drei  Abhandlungen  zur  Sexualtheorie." 

*  "  Vgl.  Kleine  Schrif  ten  zur  Neurosenlehre,"  Seite  124. 


WISH-FULFILLMENT    IN    THE    PROMETHEUS    SAGA  6 1 

SO  for  the  compulsion  to  constantly  inquire  into  the  reasons  for 
things.  Patients  with  this  peculiar  afifection  must  busy  them- 
selves, against  their  will  with  transcendental  questions  such  as  the 
origin  of  God  and  of  the  world  or  they  must  rack  their  brains 
over  the  reason  for  this  or  that  thing  in  the  world  being  as  it 
is  and  not  some  other  way.  A  case  of  my  own  observation,  which 
I  will  communicate  here,  will  illustrate  what  significance  the  in- 
fantile exhibitionistic  tendency  in  neurotically  afflicted  persons 
has  for  the  explanation  of  this  condition. 

The  patient  differentiates  himself  two  kinds  of  compulsive 
appearances,  first  the  compulsion  to  pray,  second  the  compulsion 
to  consider  every  object  with  the  greatest  care  and  then  to  spec- 
ulate on  its  origin,  restoration,  composition,  etc.  He  stated  that 
he  had  been  subjected  to  this  compulsion  since  his  childhood. 
Often  for  a  shorter  or  longer  time  it  remitted  but  always  recurred. 
Analysis  disclosed  that  he  had,  upon  numerous  occasions,  when 
he  was  a  boy,  tried  to  expose  persons  with  whom  he  had  shared 
the  bedroom  or  the  bed.  His  whole  interest  concentrated  itself 
on  the  sight  of  the  genitals  and  the  buttocks,  on  the  origin  of 
children  as  well  as  the  preceding  processes.  On  account  of  the 
violent  attempts  by  which  he  sought  to  satisfy  this  practically 
pathological  curiosity,  he  passionately  reproached  himself  and 
began  to  pray  to  God  that  he  would  allow  him  to  become  a  good 
man.  The  prayer  contained  the  character  of  the  compulsions; 
he  wrote  bits  of  paper  full  of  litanies  and  read  them  as  often  as 
he  could.  He  had  great  anxiety  lest  he  omit  a  word.  With  the 
prayer  developed  at  the  same  time  the  compulsive  consideration 
of  objects.  It  has  come  about,  therefore,  that  the  patient  has  set 
about  the  study  of  all  possible  indifferent  objects  in  place  of  the 
consideration,  considered  as  sinful,  of  certain  bodily  parts. 
Therefore  he  is  especially  interested  in  the  back  side  of  objects 
and  the  process  of  their  origin.  Through  reflection  on  the  origin 
of   indifferent   objects   he   seeks   to   provide   a   counter-balance 


62  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

against  the  reflection  on  the  origin  of  man.  The  affect  of  anxiety 
becomes,  as  ahvays  happens  in  such  cases,  "  transposed  "^®  to 
indifferent  ideas.  What  every  growing  child  in  a  high  degir^ 
and  this  boy  in  an  abnormal  degree,  busies  themselves  with,  is  the 
same  theme  that  in  mythology  is  indicated  by  anthropogenesis. 

The  creation  of  man,  the  origin  of  a  new  living  being,  offers 
so  many  mysteries,  that  these  processes,  on  that  account,  from 
the  beginning  on,  attract  the  special  interest  of  men  and  give  a 
great  incentive  to  myth  formation.  In  an  age,  from  which  nat- 
uralistic views  are  still  remote,  procreation  must  appear  like 
magic.  This  supposition  we  can  give  weighty  support.  Every- 
where in  mythology,  in  miracles,  etc.,  the  magic  wand  plays  a 
great  role.  There  can  be  no  doubt  ( for  reasons  which  I  can  not 
discuss  in  this  place)  that  the  magic  wand  signifies  the  symbolic 
representation  of  the  male  genitals.  A  quite  similar  symbol,  the 
rod  boring  in  the  wooden  disc,  is  the  nucleus  of  the  oldest  form 
of  the  Prometheus  saga.  I  have,  up  to  this  point,  not  yet  re- 
ferred to  a  very  remarkable  characteristic  of  the  Prometheus 
saga:  that  it  is  a  pure  masculine  saga.  The  procreating  man 
appears  in  it  as  well  in  the  form  of  a  person  (Pramantha)  as 
also  symbolically.  The  woman  is  only  represented  by  the  symbol 
of  the  wooden  disc  and  in  the  saga  is  only  casually  mentioned. 
We  had  formerly  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  Prometheus 
saga,  in  its  earliest  form,  was  an  apotheosis  of  the  power  of  pro- 
creation. This  view  receives  here  a  conclusive  confirmation. 
The  Prometheus  saga,  in  its  oldest  form,  had  the  tendency  to 
proclaim  the  masculine  power  of  procreation  as  a  principle  of  all 
life.  That  is  the  sexual  delusion  of  grandeur  of  all  mankind 
even  to  the  present  day. 

*'"Sammlung  kleiner  Schriften  zur  Neurosenlehre,"  especially  page  Ii8. 


XI 

Analysis  of  the  Myth  of  the  Origin  of  Nectar 

The  saga  of  the  origin  of  fire,  which  we  now  rightly  indicate 
as  a  saga  of  procreation,  is  closely  bound  up  with  the  saga  of  the 
origin  of  the  nectar  of  the  gods.  We  have  already  referred  to  this 
but  have  not,  up  to  this  time,  entered  upon  an  analysis  of  this 
myth.  From  former  experiences  we  may  expect  that  two  sagas 
which  stand  in  close  relations  to  one  another  will  also  agree  in 
their  tendencies.  For  the  analysis  of  the  nectar  myth  Kuhn's 
fundamental  work  serves  us  again  as  a  guide.  In  certain  places 
we  certainly  will  have  to  travel  our  own  path. 

Nectar  was  named  amrita  in  the  oldest  Indian  sources,  in  the 
later  soma,  in  the  Zendavesta  haoma.  The  designations  nectar 
and  ambrosia  are  generally  known  from  the  Greek  mythology. 
To  the  nectar  are  ascribed  various  wonderful,  mysterious  effects : 
it  animates,  it  inspires,  it  confers  immortality.  The  last  attribute 
is  clearly  expressed  in  "  amrita  "  and  in  the  etymologically  corre- 
sponding "  ambrosia " ;  also  a  similar  meaning  is  contained  in 
"  nectar." 

So  far  as  our  traditions  reach  back  all  peoples  manufacture  in- 
toxicating drinks,  the  use  of  which  calls  forth  the  well-known 
deceptive  feelings.  Man  feels  himself  animated,  inspired,  ex- 
alted; at  the  same  time  the  drink  gives  him  an  increased  feeling 
of  warmth  and  stirs  up  his  sexual  desires.  The  cult  of  Dionysus 
bears  always  at  the  same  time,  an  erotic  character.  Drink  thus 
calls  forth  fire  in  man,  in  a  double  sense:  Warmth  and  the  fire 
of  love.  I\Ian  produces  intoxicating  drink  by  crushing  certain 
kinds  of  plants.  These  appear  in  the  myths  as  soma  plants. 
Of  these  plants  the  ash  (mountain  ash)  especially  interests  us. 
The  same  tree,  the  wood  of  which  served  for  the  creation  of  fire. 

63 


64  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

A  juice  was  pressed  from  its  branches  which  was  called  soma. 

Besides  the  earthly  soma  there  is  also,  in  the  myth,  a  heavenly 
soma,  and  these  two  are  identified  with  one  another  quite  as  we 
have  seen  was  the  case  with  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly  fire. 
On  earth  soma  and  fire  are  gotten  from  the  ash.  As  according  to 
the  Prometheus  saga  the  heavenly  fire  is  kindled  in  the  world-ash 
(the  cloud-tree)  so  likewise,  the  heavenly  soma  comes  from  the 
world-ash.  It  is  called  forth  by  boring  in  the  wood  of  the  world- 
ash  (that  is  in  the  clouds).  The  earthly  soma  is  descended  from 
the  heavenly  soma  of  the  heavenly  ash.  A  bird,  which  nested  in 
the  branches  of  the  ash,  brought  it  to  the  earth.  The  analogy 
with  the  fire  saga  is  here  quite  striking.  As  the  heavenly  fire  em- 
braces the  heat  of  the  sun  and  lightning,  so  also  the  heavenly  soma 
is  ambiguous;  it  is  at  the  same  time  dew  and  rain  and  further 
still  comes  to  be  the  drink  of  the  gods.  The  cloud-tree  is  in 
certain  myths  exactly  described.  Its  roots  are  in  the  sea;  at  its 
foot  are  springs  which  fall  to  the  earth  as  rain.  From  the 
branches  falls  the  dew.''^ 

We  have  established  that  in  the  oldest  stratum  of  the  Prome- 
theus saga  the  breaking  out  of  the  earthly  and  heavenly  fires 
served  only  as  symbolic  representations  of  the  process  of  procrea- 
tion. We  may  with  justice  assume  that  the  earthly  and  heavenly 
soma  also  serve  as  symbolic  representations  of  a  third  element 
that  is  still  quite  unknown  to  us.  Although  the  meaning  lies 
near  it  has  escaped  Kuhn.  We  will  therefore  have  to  pass  by 
Kuhn's  analysis  in  order  that  we  may  supply  an  explanation  of 
the  third  and  most  important,  because  the  original,  significance 
of  the  soma. 

"  Another  idea,  found  in  the  Indo-germanic  myths,  saw  in  the  clouds 
a  running  horse  from  whose  mane  the  dew  ran  to  the  earth.  From  this 
cloud-horse  the  bearer  of  the  inspiring  soma,  grew  out,  in  the  Greek 
mythology,  the  winged-horse  Pegasus.  On  the  other  hand,  from  the  flying 
clouds,  the  pursuing  Erinnyes  were  formed.  In  the  same  way  the  saga 
touches  of  wild  men  in  the  Germanic  mythology.  The  idea  that  one  cloud 
hunts  another  and  seeks  to  catch  it  we  find  again  in  a  modern  painting — 
Heuernte  von  Segantini.  It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  phantasy  of  an 
artist,  whose  work  embodies  the  idea  of  the  unity  of  nature,  should  take 
the  same  direction  as  the  phantasy  of  the  race  in  prehistoric  times. 


ANALYSIS   OF   THE    MYTH    OF   THE   ORIGIN    OF    NECTAR  C$ 

The  heavenly  soma  is  produced  by  boring  in  the  clouds — thus 
through  a  symbolic  act  of  procreation.  The  conclusion  seems 
to  me  to  lie  near,  the  perception  in  the  soma  of  a  symbolic  repre- 
sentation of  semen.  Semen  has  a  vivifying  and  immortalizing, 
because  propagating  effect.  It  fertilizes  like  the  heavenly  soma 
which  as  dew  and  rain  falls  upon  the  earth.  We  are  able  now 
to  understand  why  the  sagas  of  the  origin  of  fire  and  of  the 
nectar  of  the  gods  are  so  closely  related  to  each  other.  The 
procreative  parts  of  the  body  and  the  semen  can  not  be  separated 
from  one  another. 

This  oldest  stratum  of  the  myth,  the  sexual  significance  of 
which  is  now  plain,  underlies,  as  in  the  fire  saga,  a  second  stratum. 
It  is  differentiated  also  in  this  case  from  the  first  by  the  personifi- 
cation of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  that  is,  by  the  appearance  of 
man-like  divine  beings,  by  an  intensive  sexual  repression.  We 
meet  a  half  divine  being  that  bears  the  name  of  Soma.  Soma  is  a 
genius  of  strength  and  procreation;  our  assumption  of  the  pecu- 
liar nature  of  Soma  receives  here  a  full  confirmation.  In  certain 
myths  Agni,  already  known  to  us,  appears  in  the  place  of  Soma. 

It  is  of  great  interest,  at  this  point,  to  refer  to  a  Greek  myth 
in  which  the  idea  of  the  origin  of  the  nectar  of  the  gods  by  boring 
was  held.  It  especially  opens  the  way  to  an  understanding  of  the 
latest  stratum  of  the  Soma  saga.  Zeus  desired  to  get  to  Perse- 
phone, who  was  hidden  in  the  cloud  mountain.  To  this  end  he 
changed  himself  into  a  serpent  and  bored  into  the  mountain.  This 
sexual  symbolism,  without  further  details,  is  incomprehensible  to 
us.  From  the  union  of  Zeus  and  Persephone  comes  Dionysus, 
the  god  of  wine,  a  personification  of  the  nectar  of  the  gods. 
Dionysus  was  nursed  by  the  Hyades;  these  are  as  rain  goddesses 
likewise  a  personification  of  the  heavenly  soma;  as  a  constellation 
they  preside  over  the  rainy  season. 

Zeus  of  Greek  mythology  corresponds  to  Indra  of  the  Indian. 
He  is  also  the  god  of  the  clear,  unclouded  heavens.  He  also  plays 
an  important  role  in  the  soma  srga.     He  becomes  the  soma  rob- 


66  DREAMS   AND    MYTHS 

ber.  Indra  brings  soma  out  of  a  cave,  as  Matarichvan  does  Agni 
in  the  third  stratum  of  the  Prometheus  saga,  in  which  the  Gand- 
harvas^^  guarded  him.  This  robbery  was  carried  out  by  Indra  in 
the  form  of  a  falcon.  In  many  sagas  the  robbery  of  the  soma  is 
also  ascribed  to  Agni,  who  likewise  takes  on  the  form  of  a  bird. 
We  have  met  Agni  before  as  the  fire-robbing  bird.  Now  we  also 
learn  to  know  him  as  the  robber  of  the  soma  and  have  therein  a 
remarkable  identification  before  us.  The  falcon  must  contend 
with  the  Gandharvas  for  the  possession  of  the  soma.  In  the 
struggle  he  loses  a  feather  which  falls  to  the  earth  and  changes 
into  a  soma  plant.  We  have  already  met  a  quite  similar  story  in 
the  analysis  of  the  Prometheus  saga.  Like  the  latter,  the  soma 
saga,  in  its  third  stratum,  is  so  distorted  that  in  the  manifest  con- 
tent the  sexual  is  wholly  dispensed  with. 

We  must  go  still  further  into  the  significance  of  the  soma 
plant  and  will  find  on  the  way  new  evidence  for  the  identity  of 
the  soma  with  human  semen.  The  branch  of  the  soma  tree,  a 
symbolic  representation  of  the  male  organ,  possesses  wonderful 
attributes.  It  gives  them  not  only  to  the  soma  drink;  it  serves 
much  more  the  most  various  uses  and  ceremonies.  From  the 
mountain  ash  are  obtained  the  so-called  divining  rods  which  serve, 
among  other  things,  to  locate  subterranean  water.  According  to 
a  very  ancient  custom  the  herdsmen  struck  their  cattle  in  the 
spring  with  a  branch  of  the  mountain  ash  to  increase  their  fruit- 
fulness  and  production  of  milk.  The  branch  of  the  soma  tree 
turns  also  into  a  magic  wand  such  as  the  staff  of  Hermes  and 
the  thyrsus  with  which  Dionysus  struck  wine  from  the  rock.  We 
have  already  mentioned  the  biblical  story  in  which  Moses  strikes 
water  from  the  rock  with  his  miraculous  staff;  the  symbolic  sig- 
nificance of  this  staff  becomes  still  clearer,  when  we  recall,  that  it 
changed  into  a  serpent  before  the  eyes  of  Pharaoh.^^ 

**  Kuhn  has  shown  in  a  special  work  that  from  the  Gandharvas  have 
come  a  species  of  demon,  the  Centaurs  of  the  Greek  saga. 

**  The  process  of  erection  has  plainly  stimulated  the  phantasy  activities 
to  an  extraordinary  degree;  the  transformation  of  the  staff  (phallus)  into 
a  serpent  signifies  the  return  of  the  phallus  to  the  quiescent  condition. 


ANALYSIS   OF   THE    MYTH    OF   THE   ORIGIN    OF    NECTAR  ^J 

Of  the  extremely  varied  functions  of  the  ash  in  the  myths 
and  customs  one  especially  is  interesting  to  us.  From  the  wood 
of  the  ash  the  pestle  is  made  which  is  used  in  the  preparation  of 
butter.  This  wood  protects  against  all  kinds  of  witchcraft  which 
it  is  believed  one  is  especially  exposed  to  by  butter.  According 
to  present  sources  there  can  now  be  no  doubt  that  the  process  of 
making  butter  is  quite  comparable  to  the  preparation  of  fire  by 
the  act  of  generation  and  is  set  symbolically  in  its  place,  that 
further  the  product,  the  butter,  is  identified  respectively  with 
semen  and  also  with  the  soma.  A  tale  of  the  Mahabarata  de- 
scribes the  origin  of  the  soma  as  a  process  throughout  analogous 
to  the  preparation  of  butter.  I  will  give  here  Kuhn's*°  account 
greatly  abbreviated.  The  gods  desiring  amrita  (ambrosia)  and 
the  Asuras  (bad  demons)  take  the  mountain  Mandara  as  a  butter 
stick  in  order  to  beat  up  the  ocean  with  it.  Indra  laid  the  serpent 
Vasuki  like  a  rope  about  the  mountain  and  now  the  gods  and 
Asura  began  to  pull  upon  it.  Out  of  the  mouth  of  the  pulled- 
upon  serpent  darted  smoke  and  flame  which  formed  into  thick 
clouds  which  cast  down  lightning  and  rain  upon  the  gods.  At 
the  same  time,  while  the  mountain  was  being  whirled  around,  the 
trees  standing  together  on  its  summit  caught  fire  and  the  fire 
started  in  this  way  wrapped  itself  around  the  mountain  like  the 
lightning  does  the  dark  clouds.  The  fire  Indra  put  out  with  water 
from  the  clouds,  and  all  of  the  juices  of  the  great  trees  and  plants 
flowed  into  the  sea,  and  out  of  this  water  mixed  with  the  most 
excellent  juices,  which  curdles  into  butter,  the  soma  rises  up, 
which  in  this  saga  is  identified  with  the  moon,  after  it  different 
other  mythical  beings,  and  finally  Dhanvantari  comes  forth  hold- 
ing a  white  jug  in  which  the  amrita  is  found.  The  gods  and 
Asuras  contend  for  this  and  the  former  conquer. 

The  oldest  Indian  epics  contain  numerous  other  representa- 
tions of  the  winning  of  the  amrita.  None  of  them  speak  against 
the  signification  of  the  soma  assumed  by  me.     Each  of  the  three 

*'Kuhn.  "Die  Herabkunft  des  Feuers,"  1886,  S.  219, 


68  DREAMS   AND  MYTHS 

Strata,  which  we  have  been  able  to  establish  in  the  saga,  contain 
a  wish-fulfillment,  which  is  throughout  analogous  to  that  in  the 
corresponding  stratum  of  the  Prometheus  saga.  As  in  that,  pro- 
creation or  the  organ  that  serves  that  purpose,  so  in  this  the  semen 
originally  receives  its  apotheosis.  As  the  result  of  repression  of 
the  sexual  content  of  the  saga  the  semen  gradually  becomes  trans- 
formed into  the  nectar  of  the  gods.  It  becomes  the  gift  of  a  good 
god  to  man.  The  saga  of  the  soma  goes  through  the  same  trans- 
formation as  the  Prometheus  saga  and  ends,  like  it,  in  an  actual, 
not  sexual  wish-fulfillment. 


XII 

The  Wish  Theory  of  the  Myth 

I  have  tried,  on  the  basis  of  psychological  considerations,  to 
give  a  theory  of  the  origin  of  myths,  and,  through  going  into  the 
analysis  of  examples,  to  lend  it  support.  It  is  now  time  to  discuss 
the  relation  of  the  views  defended  here  to  other  mythological 
theories. 

The  oldest,  and  I  believe  the  most  popular  theory  today,  as- 
sumes the  myth  to  be  the  figurative  expression  of  philosophico- 
religious  ideas.  According  to  generally  diffused  views  such  ideas 
lie,  so  to  speak,  at  the  foundation  of  the  life  of  the  human  psyche. 
I  cannot  myself  follow  this  view.  As  little  as  the  child  comes 
into  the  world  with  an  altruistic  ethics,  quite  as  little  is  it  to  be 
assumed  that  man,  in  prehistoric  times,  bears  within  himself  philo- 
sophical or  religious  ideas  and  that  he  symbolizes  these,  by  way 
of  supplement,  in  the  myths.  An  uncommonly  long  process  of 
repression  was  necessary  before  such  an  ethics  came  to  occupy 
an  assured  position  in  the  race  and  this  process  of  repression  must 
be  repeated  in  miniature  again  today  by  each  individual.  Our 
analysis  of  the  Prometheus  saga  has  shown  that  the  single  con- 
stituent which  appeared  as  an  ethical-religious  idea — the  view  of 
Prometheus  as  a  providential  being — is  of  a  quite  subordinate, 
secondary  nature,  while  ideas  and  wishes  of  quite  another  sort 
are  found  to  be  the  true  basis  of  the  saga.  As  Freud  has  shown 
for  the  CEdipus  saga,  so  I  believe  I  have  established  for  the  Pro- 
metheus saga,  that  it  has  not  taken  its  origin  from  ethical,  reli- 
gious, or  philosophical  considerations,  but  from  the  sexual  phan- 
tasies of  mankind.  I  conceive  the  ethical-religious  constituents 
of  the  myth  as  later  impressions,  as  products  of  repression.  The 
other  sagas  also,  which  I  could  not  go  into  so  completely,  appear 
to  me  to  speak  throughout  in  favor  of  this  view. 

69 


70  DREAMS    AND    MYTHS 

Fifty  years  ago,  when  Kuhn  founded  comparative  mythology, 
the  young  science  broke  with  the  old  views  of  the  origin  of  myths. 
For  example  Delbriick*^  brought,  with  special  precision,  the  revo- 
lution of  opinion  to  expression.  He  declares  that  every  myth 
goes  back  to  a  natural  intuition.  The  myth  is  a  naive  effort  at 
the  explanation  of  natural  phenomena.  One  credits  myths  now 
with  an  evolution  and  compares  single  sagas  with  the  sagas  of 
similar  content  of  other  peoples. 

A  modern  theory  traces  back  all  myths  of  Semitic  and  indo- 
germanic  races  to  a  single  source:  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
constellations.  The  more  recent  advances  have  shown  Babylonia 
to  be  the  home  of  astronomy  and  that  very  many  myths  indicate 
a  Babylonian  origin.  This  is  the  so-called  astral  theory.  A  short 
work  by  Winckler*^  is  useful  for  purposes  of  orientation  in  this 
theory. 

If  one  takes  a  consideration  of  nature  as  the  source  of  all 
myths,  if  one  sees  in  them  an  expression  of  an  astronomical 
view,  such  a  theory  is  in  this  respect  unsatisfactory.  It  gives 
us  no  perception  of  the  motive  in  the  myth  formation.  It  takes 
no  account  of  the  egocentricity  of  all  phantasy  formations  of 
mankind.  Well  may  astronomical  considerations  have  had  a  great 
influence  on  the  outer  forms  of  myths  but  their  significance  can 
only  be  secondary.  In  dreams  also,  observation  of  the  outer 
world  made  by  the  dreamer,  enter  as  material;  they  appear,  if 
one  neglects  a  careful  analysis,  to  constitute  the  essential  con- 
tent of  the  dream.  He  makes  use  of  this  material  because  he 
finds  in  it  analogies  to  his  "1" ;  it  serves  him  for  the  symbolic 
veiling  of  his  wish  phantasies.  The  astronomical  view  serves  the 
race  to  the  same  end.  It  projects  its  phantasies  in  the  heavens. 
At  the  central  point  of  its  myths  stands  the  race  itself;  it  expe- 
riences in  them  the  fulfilling  of  its  wishes. 

*^  Delbriick,  "  Die  Entstehung  des  Mythus  bei  den  indogermanischen 
Volkern,"  Zeitschr.  fur  Volkerpsychol.  u.  Sprachwissenschaft,  Bd.  3,  1865. 

*^  Winckler,  H.,  "  Himmels-  und  Weltenbild  der  Babylonier  als  Grund- 
lage  der  Weltanschauung  und  Mythologie  aller  Volker."  In  "  Der  alte 
Orient,"  Leipzig,  1902. 


THE    WISH    THEORY   OF   THE    MYTH  /I 

The  wish  theory  of  myths  is  amplified  without  difficulty  to  a 
wish  theory  of  religion.  The  original  identification  of  man  with 
his  god  has  become,  in  myths  and  in  religion,  indistinguishable. 
Through  a  long  process  of  repression  the  monotheistic  races  have 
advanced  to  the  position  of  subordinating  themselves  to  their  god 
as  their  creator.  When  gradually  great  revolutions  have  led  to 
the  consideration  of  a  single  god  as  the  father  of  mankind — no 
longer  in  the  sense  of  the  procreative  but  of  the  caring-for  father 
— so  again  there  is  contained  therein  a  wish  phantasy  which  has 
Its  roots  in  infancy.  It  is  the  same  wish  phantasy  which  Pro- 
metheus displayed  in  his  love  for  the  Greeks  as  "  Forethought." 
Man  wishes  for  a  care-taking  providence;  he  projects  this  wish 
in  the  heavens :  there  must  dwell  a  care-taking  father  for  all  men. 
Quite  as  clearly  the  Madonna  cult  comes  from  a  wish  phantasy 
rooted  in  infancy.  The  caring-for  mother,  who  is  at  the  side  of 
the  child  in  all  needs,  the  adult  in  the  great  needs  of  life  will  not 
dispense  with.  Therefore  he  carries  over  his  retained  childhood 
phantasy  to  the  queen  of  heaven.  A  belief  in  the  continuation 
of  life  after  death  is  nothing  but  the  fulfillment  of  a  wish  phan- 
tasy, whether  it  takes  the  form  of  another  world  in  the  Christian 
sense,  or  of  a  place  of  sensual  delights  in  the  sense  of  Islam. 

With  the  help  of  the  wish  theory  I  have  formulated  an  expla- 
nation of  the  origin  and  the  changes  of  myths.  It  remains  to  add 
something  about  the  disappearance  of  myths.  That  myths  dis- 
appear is  a  sufficiently  known  fact  which  includes,  for  us,  a  new 
analogy  with  dreams.  Every  dream  suffers  regressive  alterations 
whose  tempo  is  sometimes  quicker,  sometimes  slower.  There 
takes  place,  however,  no  absolute  forgetting,  but  the  dream 
thoughts  with  their  accompaniments  return  into  the  repression. 
So  there  comes  a  time  when  the  race  forgets  its  myths.  Then 
there  comes  a  time  with  each  race,  when  it  unburdens  itself  of 
traditions,  when  in  place  of  the  old  structures  of  phantasy  a  tem- 
perate manner  of  thinking  appears.  This  development  was 
furthered  as  well  through  advancing  knowledge  of  the  laws  of 


•^2  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

nature  as  through  the  general  situation  of  the  race  which  sat- 
isfied its  grandiose  complex.  In  this  retrogressive  process  the 
other  structures  of  the  phantasy  of  the  race  shared  and  not  the 
least  the  symbolism  of  language.  The  sexual  symbolism  of  lan- 
guage experienced  hardly  any  more  growth  while  the  existing 
symbolism  disappeared.  The  English  language  has  "  advanced  " 
furthest  in  this  regard — we  might  more  properly  say  "  receded." 
In  it  the  sexual  differentiations  are,  except  for  insignificant  traces, 
obliterated.  The  linguistic  and  mythical  symbolism  are  plainly 
inadequate  forms  of  expression  for  the  modern  spirit  of  the  race; 
especially  is  this  so  of  the  English.  Practical  results  make  wish 
phantasies  unnecessary.  A  race  proceeds  otherwise  when  it  is 
widely  separated  from  the  realization  of  the  national  grandiose 
complex.  The  example  of  the  Jews  is  typical.  They  have  pre- 
served, through  long  periods  of  time,  the  wish  phantasies  from 
the  childhood  of  the  race.  One  thinks  of  the  wish  dream  of  the 
chosen  people  and  of  the  promised  land. 

Modern  natural  science  indicates  by  the  designation  "  funda- 
mental biogenetic  law  "  the  fact  that  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual represents  a  condensed  repetition  of  the  development  of 
the  species.  In  long  periods  of  time  phylogenesis  has  brought 
about  gradually,  in  this  way,  many  bodily  alterations.  The  indi- 
vidual in  its  development  must  go  through  all  such  stages  of  evo- 
lution. Also  in  the  psychic  field  things  are  brought  about  in  indi- 
viduals which  phylogenetic  development  repeats.  We  have  learned 
to  know  many  phenomena  in  the  mental  life  of  the  race  and  in 
that  of  the  individual  which  are  quite  comparable  to  each  other. 
The  most  important  parallel  for  us,  however,  is  this:  The  race, 
in  prehistoric  times,  makes  its  wishes  into  structures  of  phantasy, 
which  as  myths  reach  over  into  the  historical  ages.  In  the  same 
way  the  individual  in  his  "prehistoric  period"  makes  structures 
of  phantasy  out  of  his  wishes  which  persist  as  dreams  in  the 
"  historical "  period.  So  is  the  myth  a  retained  fragment  from 
the  infantile  psychic  life  of  the  race  and  the  dream  is  the  myth  of 
the  individual. 


XIII 

The  Determining  Forces  in  the  Psychic  Life  of  the  Indi- 
vidual AND  the  Race 

The  analytic  investigations,  the  principles  of  which  are  con- 
tained in  the  works  of  Freud,  extend  to  phenomena  of  the  normal 
and  of  the  abnormal  psychic  life,  of  individual  and  race  psychol- 
ogy. He  has  succeeded  in  proving,  in  all  these  territories,  that 
every  psychic  phenomenon  is  determined  by  definite  causes.  The 
belief  in  inspiration  no  longer  needs  to  be  refuted.  The  defense 
must  be  turned  in  another  direction.  It  is  a  widely  spread,  yes 
even  scientifically  maintained  view,  that  in  the  province  of  the 
psychic  chance  governs.  One  refuses  to  acknowledge,  for  all  of 
the  thousand  occurrences  of  daily  life,  for  the  passing  fancies,  the 
mistakes,  forgettings,  etc.,  for  the  content  of  dreams,  for  the  indi- 
vidual expressions  of  mental  disorder,  a  determination  by  special 
psychic  factors.  One  persists  in  the  old,  dualistic  standpoint. 
One  assigns  to  psychic  events  a  special  position,  removing  them 
from  the  category  of  things  determined  by  natural  law.  The  view 
which  ascribes  psychological  results  to  chance,  is  in  so  far  through- 
out sterile,  that  it  never  can  be  reckoned  on  in  the  individual  phe- 
nomena of  the  psychic  life.  Here  come  Freud's  teachings.  They 
look  upon  every  psychic  phenomenon  as  an  efifect  and  seek  for  its 
specific  psychological  cause.  The  determining  forces  in  the  psy- 
chic life  are  the  object  of  its  trend  of  investigation. 

The  child  brings  the  fundamentals,  as  first  determiners  for  his 
later  psychological  conduct,  with  him  into  the  world.  That  side 
of  this  foundation  which  is  of  most  importance  for  the  explana- 
tion of  all  structures  of  phantasy,  is  the  psycho-sexual  constitu- 
tion. This  expresses  itself  unsophistically  in  childhood  until  the 
process  of  repression  begins.     While  the  child  is  preparing  to 

73 


74  DREAMS   AND   MYTHS 

transfer  its  inclination  on  to  special  living  and  lifeless  objects  and 
to  draw  it  away  from  others,  the  influence  of  education,  of  the 
milieu,  etc.,  impresses  itself  on  it  and  constrains  it  to  repress  a 
portion  of  its  natural  feelings,  and  especially  the  sexual.  Next, 
the  inborn  tendencies  exercise  a  powerful  determining  influence 
on  the  repressed  sexual  infantilism.  Infantile  psychic  material  we 
meet  anew  in  all  the  structures  of  phantasy.  Reminiscences  of 
later  life  are  added  as  a  third  determinant.  This  also  is  met  in 
great  part  in  repression.  Reminiscences,  which  are  withdrawn 
from  spontaneous  recollection,  are  considered  mostly  as  not  exist- 
ing. Freud  is  the  first  one  to  have  recognized  the  significance  of 
repression  and  the  determining  effects  of  the  repressed  psychic 
material,  and  to  have  given  it  its  full  value  in  all  its  relations. 

There  are  no  accidents  in  the  realm  of  the  psychic.  What 
outwardly  appears  as  the  result  of  accident  has  its  deepest  origin 
in  the  congenital  equipment  and  the  infantile  sexual  repression. 
The  events  after  childhood  are  like  tributaries  which  empty  into 
this  main  stream.  When  we  ascribe  to  the  sexuality,  among  the 
determining  forces,  such  a  comprehensive  significance,  that  in  no 
way  implies  an  overestimation  of  the  sexual.  Everywhere  in 
organic  life  we  find  self-preservation  subordinated  to  the  higher 
principle  of  the  preservation  of  the  species.  The  impulse  which 
serves  species  preservation  must  be  the  stronger;  otherwise  the 
race  would  perish. 

The  analytic  researches,  in  the  sense  of  Freud,  are  in  bad  odor 
today  with  the  critics.  They  share  this  fate  with  a  branch  of 
language  research — etymology.  It  was  once  said  of  this,  that 
what  characterized  it  was  that  vowels  played  no  role  in  it  and  the 
consonants  an  insignificant  role.  An  interpretation  of  words  rest- 
ing on  scientific  fundamentals  has,  however,  carried  the  day;  it 
bears  rightly  the  name  of  a  science  of  the  "essential,"  that  is  of 
the  true  essence  of  the  elements  of  speech.  The  Freudian  teach- 
ing is  an  etymology  of  psychic  phenomena.  It  also  will  finally 
establish  itself,  although  it  may  be  at  the  cost  of  many  conflicts 
with  prudery  and  the  prejudices  of  modern  science. 


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